SEATTLE -- At halftime Saturday afternoon the visiting locker room at Bank of America Arena was not a place for the faint of heart. After watching his team play its worst half of basketball this season, Pitt coach Jamie Dixon wanted to let his team know that their performance was not acceptable.

The half was uncharacteristic of a Pitt team. The Panthers gave up 37 points and allowed Washington's top 3-point shooter, Ryan Appleby, to get free for four 3-pointers. The Huskies made six as a team. In addition, the normally efficient offense was stagnant as the Panthers missed seven of their first 25 shots from the field.

"He came in with all the fire he had," freshman center DeJuan Blair said.

Rarely does a coach raising his voice solve a team's problems, but the tongue-lashing, coupled with some keen second-half adjustments, led to a fantastic final 20 minutes in which the Panthers not only stormed back for a 75-74 victory, but firmly put in place an important building block in the development of the team.

"I thought we gathered ourselves up in the second half and came together as a team in a lot of ways," Dixon said. "I think we learned how we have to play to get it done. We weren't playing our way in the first half. We did that a little bit in our last game [against Duquesne], too. I thought we really found ourselves and trusted one another and had a little more patience."

Even though the guards did not defend the 3-point line well, Dixon was more concerned about the erratic offense that once again had trouble handling pressure from the opposing team's guards. The Panthers had seven turnovers in the first half and were out of sync.

"I thought we were rushing some things," Dixon said. "I thought we were making some bad decisions. Against their pressure, we were forcing some shots up. It's something we haven't done well. We struggled a little with that our last game.

"In the second half, we shot 61 percent and had two turnovers. You can't be more efficient than that in this type of environment. We came together offensively in the second half."

Actually, the turnaround started in the final few minutes of the first half and carried over after halftime. Pitt trailed, 34-27 -- its largest deficit of the game -- with 1:36 remaining in the half. In the final 96 seconds, the Panthers outscored the Huskies, 7-3, the final three points coming on a 3-pointer from Levance Fields just before the buzzer.

That shot provided some much-needed momentum going into the intermission. Dixon had played the final seven minutes of the half with Sam Young on the bench after Young picked up his second foul. Fields, who had been struggling through an early season shooting slump, scored 13 of his 20 points in the first half to keep the Panthers close.

"I felt really good at halftime only being down three with Sam only playing the 10 minutes," Dixon said. "I thought getting to halftime and being in the game would be a good situation at that point. Levance hadn't shot it well. But you could tell he had a good feel. It was a great performance by him. He played great defense, too."

Pitt kept the momentum early in the second half, outscoring the Huskies, 31-19, en route to a 65-56 lead with 6:23 remaining. Washington battled back, but the Panthers hung on for the thrilling one-point win after an apparent winning basket by the Huskies was disallowed after officials ruled the shot came after time expired.

"That was a terrible first half," said Blair, who had a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds. "But we came back and responded."

"We felt like we didn't play our best basketball in the first half," Fields added. "We didn't cover the 3 as well as we wanted. But they were only up three [points]. We did a lot of things better in the second half. That's what you have to do. You have to keep playing.

"It's definitely a big win. It was a five-hour trip home. No one wants to lose a game like this and then get on the plane."

Pitt (9-0) does not play again until Saturday when Oklahoma State visits the Petersen Events Center. That's another reason the Panthers were savoring the victory afterward.

"This win means a lot, a lot," Sam Young said with emphasis. "With that much time off, that would be in your head the whole time. Since we got the win everyone is uplifted and happy. We got our confidence and we're still motivated, thinking about our next opponent."

NOTE -- Freshman forward Austin Wallace had an MRI yesterday on his knee, which was injured in practice Friday. The results probably won't be known until today.