Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Aaron Gray dunks in front of Georgetown's Roy Hibbert, left, and Jessie Sapp last night. Click photo for larger image. Related articles Star guard leads St. John's past Pitt women, 76-69 Big East Roundup: 1/14/06 Smizik: Pitt's usual path seems a bit sweeter

Pitt and Georgetown were supposed to play an old-fashioned Big East Conference basketball game last night with lots of defense and rough play. What transpired was an impressive display of shot-making by both teams that entertained the raucous sellout crowd at the Petersen Events Center and a national television audience.

The Panthers made just a few more plays and beat the Hoyas, 74-69. They sit alone atop the Big East after the first two weeks of conference play.

Both teams entered the game with the reputation of playing stingy defense. Georgetown came into the game giving up 54.6 points per game; Pitt 61.9. But neither team could stop the other. Georgetown shot 60.9 percent from the field; Pitt 59.6.

Georgetown set a Petersen Events Center for shooting percentage. Pitt had held 68 consecutive opponents under 50 percent. The previous time a team shot better than 50 percent was Bucknell in January 2005.

"It was unbelievable," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "Who would have predicted that? Everyone was talking about our defense and their defense, but we have a pretty good offense, too."

Junior guard Mike Cook was the star for Pitt, scoring 18 points. He was joined in double figures by senior center Aaron Gray (11), Antonio Graves (11) and Ronald Ramon (10).

Jeff Green and Jessie Sapp led Georgetown with 15 points apiece.

Pitt and Georgetown each made 28 field goals, but the difference came at the free-throw line. The Panthers were 15 for 19 from the line and made 5 of 6 in the final minute.

"They shot 60 percent, but I felt like we guarded them well," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. "That doesn't make sense coming out of my mouth, but for the most part that's the way it was."

With the victory, No. 7 Pitt (16-2, 4-0) is the only remaining team without a loss in the Big East. Georgetown, picked to finish second behind Pitt, fell to 1-2 in league play.

"Every game is important in the Big East," Pitt senior forward Levon Kendall said. "There was a lot of hype surrounding this game. They've given us some good battles over the years. It was big for us to get this win. It's something we expected to do at home."

Cook said the Panthers were successful because they were able to spread out the Hoyas on defense.

"We were just spreading the court," Cook said. "We really wanted to make [Roy] Hibbert work. Aaron sucks in so much attention, and there were opportunities to drive for us."

Pitt had a 41-32 lead at halftime and built that lead to 15 points early in the second half by scoring eight of the first 10 points for a 49-34 lead with 17:14 remaining. Georgetown was able to cut the lead to seven with 8:01 left after a Patrick Ewing Jr. 3-pointer from the corner.

The Hoyas were able to cut it six with 3:24 left after Ewing made a running bank shot. That completed a 9-3 run and made it 68-62. But the Hoyas could not cut it below six until the final buzzer when a 3-point fell through the net.

Georgetown found some holes in Pitt's defense in the early going. The Hoyas were shooting 73 percent from the field in the first 10 minutes. Pitt, however, was able to keep pace by shooting 60 percent in the same period.

Pitt led, 19-18, after a Ramon jumper from the foul line with 10:40 remaining in the first half. The Panthers built upon that lead in the next few minutes with a 7-2 run and led 26-20 after a Cook layup.

Cook was at the center of another Pitt 7-2 run a few minutes later that helped the Panthers build a double-digit lead. He scored on consecutive possessions and then drove to the basket and kicked a pass to the corner, where Levance Fields made a 3-pointer for a 35-26 lead with 4:29 left before halftime. Graves drove the lane and made a short jumper less than a minute later for Pitt's biggest lead of the half, 37-26.

Georgetown cut into that lead with a 6-0 run, but Pitt restored its edge in the final minute of the half. Gray scored the final four points of the half, including a dunk with four seconds left after receiving a pass from Fields.

Neither team seemed bothered by the 7-foot centers in the middle. Georgetown scored 44 points in the paint and Pitt had 32.

One of the big differences in the first half was turnovers. Georgetown had six and Pitt scored 12 points from those turnovers. The Panthers committed just two turnovers in the first half.