For one game at least, Pitt proved it could play without point guard Levance Fields. Now the real test comes. Can the Panthers play without their injured star when Big East play gets under way Sunday afternoon at Villanova?

No. 13-ranked Pitt overcame a halftime deficit to defeat Lafayette, 96-75, last night at the Petersen Events Center.

Senior guard Keith Benjamin, making his first start in 52 games, scored a career-high 20 points. And new point guard Ronald Ramon, playing with an injured shoulder, had a double-double with 11 points and 10 assists. Perhaps more impressive, Ramon did not commit a turnover in 34 minutes.

Pitt also received a career-high 19 points from reserve forward Tyrell Biggs. Sam Young added 19 for the Panthers, who finished 12-1 in non-conference play.

"It was everything I could have hoped for," Dixon said. "We're not feeling sorry for ourselves, but the facts remain we have two guys who were starting who aren't with us right now. We had to become a new team over the last couple of days. We were unselfish and got better as the game went on. It was exactly as I had hoped."

Benjamin, who averaged 17 minutes per game this season, played a career-high 32 minutes and put together the best game of his career. He was 7 for 9 from the field and had five assists and only one turnover.

Biggs, who had been playing 20 minutes a game, played 26. He was 9 for 11 from the field and had four offensive rebounds and two blocks.

And Ramon, who could not lift his arm above his head Saturday night against Dayton after dislocating it, broke out of an extended shooting slump and made three of his four attempts from 3-point range.

"This is an opportunity for those guys to get better as players, and then when we get Levance back, we can be better for it down the road," Dixon said. "Most people wouldn't look at it that way, but that's how we're going to look at it. What's happened to us is rare. To lose three guys like that in [three] weeks ... But we are not making excuses and we're going to be ready to go."

Pitt shot 67.3 percent (35 for 52) for the game and 80 percent (20 for 25) in the second half, when the Panthers erased a two-point halftime deficit by outscoring Lafayette, 57-34, in the final 20 minutes.

Lafayette flirted with the upset bid into the early moments of the second half before succumbing to Pitt's more talented players. The Leopards made 17 3-pointers, setting a record for a Pitt opponent. The Leopards made 11 of those in the first half and led, 41-39, at the intermission.

Matt Betley, a 32-percent 3-point shooter entering the game, made all five of his 3-point attempts in the first half, giving the Leopards an unexpected boost. He finished 6 for 6 from 3-point range and led Lafayette with 20 points.

The second half belonged to Pitt from the opening minute. Ramon made a 3-pointer 22 seconds into the second half and followed that up with two more over the next four minutes. A Brad Wanamaker 3-pointer with 11:57 remaining gave Pitt a 63-56 lead, its biggest of the game to that point. That was the start of a 15-2 run that blew the game open in Pitt's favor

So what was the difference in the two halves?

"We just got worn down by superior athletes," Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon said.

Pitt, by contrast, got stronger as the game went on. The Panthers, who had made just seven of their 44 3-point attempts in their previous two games against Dayton and Duke, made 10 of 16 against Lafayette.

They also buckled down on defense and held the Leopards to only 10 field goals after halftime.

After three heart-wrenching days that saw their world turned upside down, Dixon said the Panthers responded in stellar fashion.

"I saw our guys grow in a lot of ways throughout the week," he said. "I'm proud of the way they handled it. We've had a tough week. Mike Cook and Levance Fields are our vocal leaders. You could see the [hurt] in the guys. We needed a game. That was the best thing for us."

NOTES -- Fields, who had surgery on his injured foot Monday, watched the game from the first row. ... Cook had three-hour surgery on his injured knee. Dixon said the surgery went as well as can be expected for an injury as severe as Cook suffered. ... Pitt shot a better percentage just once in the Dixon era -- against Kent State in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2006.