Justin Champagnie totaled 24 points and 21 rebounds and the Pittsburgh Panthers never trailed Saturday afternoon en route to a 67-50 victory over visiting Gardner-Webb.
Coming off a 20-20 game in Wednesday's win at Northwestern, Champagnie posted his third straight double-double, joining DeJuan Blair and Billy Knight as the third player in Pitt history to post multiple 20-20 games.
Champagnie had his double-double by halftime and became the seventh ACC player to post multiple 20-20 games since 1970. The most recent was Tim Duncan for Wake Forest in 1997.
Champagnie helped Pittsburgh (4-1) win its fourth successive game by shooting 10 of 20 from the floor and adding five assists before checking out with four minutes remaining.
Xavier Johnson added 12 points for the Panthers, who won despite shooting 35.9 percent (23-of-64) and missing 17 of 18 3-point tries.
The Panthers dominated inside and on the glass, outscoring the Bulldogs (0-2) 36-24 in the paint, held a commanding 58-38 rebounding margin, and scored 17 second-chance points.
Jaheam Cornwall scored 13 points for Gardner-Webb, which missed its first 18 shots, shot 29.7 percent (19-of-64) overall, and missed 20 of 25 3-point attempts. Lance Terry added 10 for the Bulldogs, who nearly won at Western Kentucky in their season opener on Thursday.
Pittsburgh jumped out front early, taking a 14-0 lead before Anthony Selden ended Gardner-Webb's shooting drought by hitting a 3-pointer with 12:17 into the game. The Bulldogs outscored the Panthers 18-13 the rest of the half, but the nine-point halftime deficit was as close as Gardner-Webb would get the rest of the game.
Pittsburgh began pulling away early in the second half and took a 47-29 lead with 13:06 to play on a layup by Champagnie. Champagnie reached 20 points by hitting another layup with 11:28 left to make it 49-33. He reached 20 rebounds when he grabbed a missed shot by Au-Diese Toney and converted the putback for a 56-39 lead with 5:24 remaining.
--Field Level Media
Gardner-Webb | Pittsburgh | |
Jaheam Cornwall 13 | Scoring | Justin Champagnie 24 |
Jaheam Cornwall 4 | Assists | Justin Champagnie 5 |
Ludovic Dufeal 8 | Rebounds | Justin Champagnie 21 |
Jaheam Cornwall 2 | Free Throws Made | Au'Diese Toney 5 |
Ludovic Dufeal 2 | Steals | Ithiel Horton 2 |
Ludovic Dufeal 1 | Blocks | Terrell Brown 2 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Gardner-Webb | 50 | 29.7 | 5-25 | 7-13 | 10 | 36 | 3 | 8 | 18 |
Pittsburgh | 67 | 35.9 | 1-18 | 20-32 | 13 | 58 | 7 | 8 | 16 |