Femi Odukale scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead Pittsburgh to a 59-51 home win over UNC Wilmington on Tuesday.
John Hugley added 13 points and 11 rebounds for Pitt (1-2), which had lost to The Citadel and West Virginia to open the season.
Trazarien White came off of the bench to score 14 points and Mike Okauru had 12 points in defeat for UNC Wilmington (1-2).
Pitt had a 47-33 rebounding edge and held UNC Wilmington to 28.8 percent shooting from the field (17 of 59), which helped the Panthers overcome 17 turnovers and 55.2 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
Pitt only took four shots from 3-point range but shot 42.9 percent from the field overall.
Pitt held a 47-34 lead with 13:01 remaining before UNC Wilmington made its move.
The Seahawks went on a 10-0 run over the next 2:34 to cut Pitt’s lead to three with 10:27 left after a White layup.
UNC Wilmington then closed within 49-47 with 9:14 remaining on a Jaylen Fornes 3-pointer before Pitt responded with five straight points to take a 54-47 lead with 7:28 left.
UNC Wilmington cut Pitt’s lead to 56-51 with 2:17 remaining but couldn’t score another point the rest of the way as Pitt salted the game away with three free throws down the stretch.
Pitt was in control early, jumping out to a 17-6 lead in the first seven minutes and taking a 26-13 edge with 6:23 to go until halftime.
The Panthers ultimately took a 34-21 lead at intermission.
Pitt continued to grow its lead in the second half, going up 38-21 with 18:51 remaining in the game.
UNC Wilmington responded with an 11-2 run to cut its deficit to 40-32 with 15:09 left, but Pitt answered by scoring the next six points to grab a 46-32 lead with 14:32 remaining on a William Jeffress layup.
–Field Level Media
