PITTSBURGH – If only Maine could have played the way it did during the game’s final 25 minutes from the start of the game, the Black Bears might have had a better chance of pulling off an upset on the road against a Big East team.

As it was, however, Pittsburgh rode its 27-7 start and held on for a 62-49 victory.

“We got off to a little rough start, and I thought [Pitt] had something to do with that,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward, whose team made only three of its first 19 shots. “They pressured us early on. I thought we responded well. We put it together well and shot the ball well after the first 10 minutes of the basketball game.”

The Panthers’ Aaron Gray had 15 points and a career-high 13 rebounds for his second double-double in three games. The 7-foot Gray, who also had a career-high four blocks, had 17 points and 11 rebounds in his first career start against Saint Peter’s seven days prior.

“I think in these three games, we have seen great improvement by him,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said.

The Panthers (3-0) began the contest with leads of 13-3 and 27-7. The only time the Black Bears (1-3) led was at 3-2, but Maine outscored Pitt 42-35 after its poor start.

The Black Bears cut the deficit to 7 points six minutes into the second half and again with five minutes to play but could get no closer.

“I felt we didn’t have a lot of energy at some points in the game,” Gray said.

Pitt held Maine to 32 percent shooting. But after starting 3-for-19, the Black Bears shot a more respectable 40 percent (14 for 35) the rest of the game.

Maine cut Pittsburgh’s lead to seven points twice in the second half, the last time with 5:15 left in the game, but could get no closer as the Panthers canned seven free throws in the final two minutes.

“We just made a couple bad decisions,” Panthers point guard Carl Krauser said. “[Maine] did a great job playing the passing lanes and hitting open shots.”

Krauser had only five points to break a streak of 17 consecutive games in which he scored at least 10. It was his lowest scoring output since he also had five points on Nov. 20, 2004, in the 2004-05 season opener against Howard. Krauser hit only two of his 12 shots.

But Pitt was able to overcome that because its bench outscored Maine’s 31-6. The Panthers’ second- and third-leading scorers were non-starters. Antonio Graves had 12 points and eight rebounds and Keith Benjamin 10 points.

“That was good production out of a lot of guys,” Dixon said. “We saw some good things out of everybody.”

The Panthers won despite shooting only 37 percent themselves, including only 6-for-22 (27 percent) from 3-point range.

“When you win when you don’t shoot it great, that’s a good sign,” Dixon said. “I thought we took good shots. Usually if you shoot 37 percent, you can’t say you took a lot of good shots.”

Pitt’s defense limited Maine guard Ernest Turner to 15 points. Turner came into the game averaging 22.3 points per contest. Jon Sheets added 14 points and Chris Bruff 11 rebounds for the Black Bears, who were playing their fourth game in nine days.

Maine outrebounded the Panthers 42-40 overall.

Pitt, which has won 52 of their last 53 home games against non-conference opponents, has won all four times it has played an America East Conference opponent.

PANTHERS 62, BLACK BEARS 49

Maine (1-3) Pittsburgh (3-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

E.Turner 5 17 2 2 15 DeGroat 2 3 5

Bruff 1 2 1 2 3 Kendall 2 6 4

Ahvenniemi 1 3 2 2 4 Gray 6 10 15

R.Turner 3 10 1 5 7 Fields 1 5 2

Sheets 4 15 2 2 14 Krauser 2 12 5

Hight 0 0 0 0 0 Benjamin 4 10

Petkus 0 0 0 0 0 Ramon 2 8 6

Cavanaugh 1 3 0 0 2 Biggs 0 0 0

Bofia 2 4 0 0 4 Graves 3 7 12

Young 0 3 3 3

Totals 17 54 8 13 49 22 59 12 19 62

Maine 18 49

Pittsburgh 32 62

3-pt. goals – Maine (7-22): Sheets 4-9, E. Turner 3-9, R. Turner 0-4; Pitt (6-22): Ramon 2-7, Benjamin 1-1, DeGroat 1-2, Graves 1-3, Krauser 1-7, Young 0-1, Fields 0-1

Attendance: 8,310