WASHINGTON – Ashton Gibbs hit five 3-pointers and scored 22 points, and No. 5 Pittsburgh broke open the game early Wednesday night and remained unbeaten in the Big East with a 72-57 win over No. 22 Georgetown.
Brad Wanamaker added 14 points and Gilbert Brown had 12 for the Panthers, who shot 58 percent in the first half to build a 17-point halftime lead, the school's largest in a Big East road game. Pitt (16-1, 4-0) has won six straight overall.
Chris Wright scored 14 points for the slumping Hoyas (12-5, 1-4), who have lost three straight and are off to their worst conference start since 1998-99. Georgetown was let down by poor defense, poor free throw shooting and yet another off night from senior leaders Wright and Austin Freeman.
Pitt took advantage of Georgetown's interior defense to score all seven of its baskets in the paint during the first 8 minutes of the second half. The Hoyas made only four of 14 free throws in the first half — generating boos from the faithful — and 14 of 25 for the game. Wright and Freeman were non-factors in the first half, with Wright spending much time on the bench after committing two fouls in a 7-second span and Freeman shooting 2 for 7.
Freeman finished with 12 points, and Julian Vaughn scored 13. The Hoyas' share-the-ball Princeton offense generated only one assist in the first 12 minutes and just five in the entire game.
Georgetown didn't have a run longer than 4-0 until late in the game, when it went to a full-court press and rolled off seven straight points to cut an 18-point lead to 11 with 5 minutes remaining. Gibbs answered with a 3-pointer, and the game slowed to a crawl in a second half that included 26 fouls. Pitt went 9 for 12 from the line over the final 4 minutes, enough to keep the Hoyas from cutting the lead to single digits.
The Panthers took control in the first half with a 15-2 run, highlighted by three 3-pointers from Gibbs and a pair of fast-break layups to build a 24-9 lead.
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