The Panthers blew out Oregon State, 76-51, in the consolation game of the NIT Tip-off Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday.

Forward Zack Martin led Pitt with 19 points and eight rebounds. Fellow forward Blake Hinson added 17 points, while guard Ishmael Leggett contributed with 15 points and seven rebounds.

The Panthers held a healthy 39-27 lead at halftime before pulling away in the second half to secure the rout.

The win improves Pitt’s record to 5-1 on the season.

It was the first victory for Pitt over a high-major in the 2023/2024 campaign. The Panthers opened the year with a 4-0 mark before falling to Florida, 86-71, in the opening round of the Tip-off Classic on Wednesday night.

The Panthers came into the 2023/2024 season with high hopes after a resurgent campaign a year ago that saw them advance to their first NCAA tournament in seven years. After outlasting Mississippi State in a First Four game in Dayton, Ohio, Pitt, an 11th-seed, blew out sixth-seeded Iowa State, 59-41, to advance to the round of 32.

The Panthers may have fallen to third-seeded Xavier two days later, but the program certainly had tons to be proud of and a lot to build on under head coach Jeff Capel, who took the job in 2018 and had an uphill climb following the dreadful Kevin Stallings era.

It’s been a history of “what ifs” for Pitt’s men’s basketball program.

That all started in the 1980s when head coach Paul Evans turned the program into a juggernaut in the powerful Big East Conference. Unfortunately, despite many great seasons and decent seeds, the Panthers never once advanced out of the second round under Evans.

The Panthers probably had their best success in the 2000s; first, under head coach Ben Howland, who led the program to two straight regular-season Big East titles and one conference tournament championship. After leaving for the head-coaching job at UCLA, Howland was succeeded by Jamie Dixon, his top assistant. Pitt continued its Big East success under Dixon, winning two more regular-season titles and another conference tournament championship in 2008. Unfortunately, while the Panthers became a perennial regular-season powerhouse and did manage to advance past the second round under both Howland and Dixon, they never made it to a Final Four. The closest the program came was a heartbreaking loss to Villanova in the Elite Eight following the 2008/2009 campaign.

The program struggled to find its footing after moving to the ACC, and Dixon eventually left–or some say, he was pushed out–to become the head coach at TCU in 2016.

After suffering six-straight losing seasons–including the first four years of Capel’s reign–the Panthers finished with a 24-12 record a year ago and in a tie for third place in the ACC.

Next up for the Panthers is a date with Missouri on Tuesday night at the Peterson Events Center.