The final score displayed on the Petersen Events Center scoreboard Friday night indicated Pitt enjoyed a second easy nonconference victory, 89-60, against Binghamton.

But coach Jeff Capel said there was more to it than mere numbers. Pitt won by 29, but the lead was only eight at halftime. More than anything, Capel liked the way the Panthers (2-0) responded when challenged.

“We needed a game like this where we didn’t have as much separation at halftime,” he said, referring to the 100-52 victory Monday against North Carolina A&T when Pitt was up 35 at intermission. “We learned a lot in this game.

“This was a really good game for us because we played against a team that is older. They’re a veteran, hard-playing team.”

For sake of comparison, Pitt is the second power conference team Binghamton played this week. The Bearcats (0-2) lost to Northwestern on Monday, 72-61.

“We knew they would come in here with a lot of confidence because of their performance on Monday against Northwestern,” Capel said. “They really came after us to start the game defensively. They were physical, and they just played really, really hard.”

Binghamton stayed close to the Panthers, largely on the strength of six 3-point field goals in the first half, one short of the Bearcats’ full-game average a year ago.

But the game quickly turned into a rout after halftime when senior forward Blake Hinson put a charge in the crowd of 7,747.

After playing nearly the first 12 minutes of the game without scoring, Hinson finished with 26 points — one short of his career high - in 24 minutes. He hit 8 of 14 shots from the field (4 of 9 from 3-point range). Binghamton’s defenders couldn’t control him at the outset of the second half while he scored 14 points in the first 4 minutes, 38 seconds.

He made four of his five shots in the second half, part of Pitt’s overall 53.6% effort (15 of 28) after halftime.

Hinson said he felt no different during his scoring blitz than he did at the outset of the game.

“It’s the same feel the whole time. Run offense, shoot our shots,” he said. “I made more shots in the second half, but the feeling is the same. I’m locked in on trying to win.”

Freshman point guard Bub Carring­ton couldn’t match his triple-double from Monday night, but he finished with 18 points, three rebounds and four assists. He also was called for a technical foul when he became excited after a basket and shouted in close proximity to Binghamton’s Armon Harried, a Baltimore native like Carrington.

“I told him to be smart,” teammate Ishmael Leggett said. “Showing a little emotion is good, but just knowing when to do it and when not to do it. We love emotion, but not when it results in (technical fouls).”

Leggett was the busiest Pitt player with a double-double (18-11) while registering five assists and four steals. In the process, het became the 25th player in the NCAA since the 2010-11 season to record at least 15 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and four steals in a game.

Guillermo Diaz Graham added 12 points, four rebounds and one of Pitt’s seven blocked shots.

“Big guys do a great job and I just clean it up, pretty much,” said Leggett, who played his second game for Pitt after transferring from Rhode Island. “It makes it 10 times easier when everyone around you is just as good as you. It takes a lot of pressure off my performance.”

Pitt scored 22 fast-break points and outscored Binghamton, 16-0, on points off turnovers.

“I think we are very lethal in transition,” Leggett said. “That’s one of the things we’re trying to do. As soon as we get it out, get it into the guard’s hands and just off to the races we go.

“We believe in ourselves.”

Capel especially was pleased with his team’s defense in the second half when Binghamton recorded only nine field goals on 28.1% shooting. Three blocks each from Zack Austin and Federiko Federiko helped make that possible, but Hinson said defense should be a team effort.

“We can’t keep relying on (blocks),” he said. “We have to also do our job to keep those (opposing players) from going downhill. Thank, God, they’re there. But we have to get better on defense, for sure. We didn’t execute. When I say we it’s a select few, and I’m one of those people. We have to tap in and get better with it.”

Nonetheless, Capel was mostly happy with his team that has now outscored two opponents 189-112. Pitt is 2-0 for the first time since 2018, Capel’s first season.

“I was really, really proud of how we started the second half,” he said. “We talked about it at halftime, to play with more poise, don’t get sped up. I thought we defended, and that led to us being really, really good offensively.”

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