To call Pitt's 47-32 victory against New Hampshire a defensive struggle would be grossly inaccurate. What transpired last night inside Petersen Events Center was more about offensive ineptitude than defensive prowess.

Only Ashton Gibbs saved Pitt from an embarrassing defeat. He scored a career-high 23 points. But this game was not about the highs. It will forever be defined by the low benchmarks that were achieved.

According to the NCAA record book, the 22 combined points at halftime were the lowest of the shot-clock era, which began in 1985. Pitt led New Hampshire, 15-7, and the Panthers needed a late spurt in the final five minutes of the half to take the lead. They were tied, 7-7, with 4:28 left.

The previous record was set Jan. 8, 2003, in a game involving Mississippi and South Carolina. They combined for 28 points in the first half.

"Offensively, we turned the game back a few years tonight," New Hampshire coach Bill Herrion said.

The 32 points by a Pitt opponent were the fewest in 36 years. The Panthers defeated Rutgers, 36-21, Dec. 4, 1973, but that game was halted by a protest a few minutes into the second half. The game was awarded to Pitt and went in the record books as an official game. Before that, the lowest point total for a complete game for a Pitt opponent was 24 in March of '52, and the Panthers lost that game. Penn State beat Pitt, 24-9, in University Park.

New Hampshire (2-3) was 12 for 51 from the field. The Wildcats made only one field goal over the final 16:20 seconds of the first half. They did not break 20 points until 8:33 remained in the game.

"That was like a root canal," Herrion said.

It was not much better for Pitt (7-1). It was the second lowest point total of Jamie Dixon's tenure as head coach. The lowest total came in the 2007 Big East tournament championship game when Georgetown beat the Panthers, 65-42.

Last night, Gibbs and Brad Wanamaker accounted for 42 of the 47 points. For the first 36 minutes and 15 seconds of the game, the two guards were the only ones to make field goals. It was not until 3:45 remained in the game that someone else put the ball through the basket -- Dante Taylor made the only other field goal.

Gibbs and Wanamaker were 16 for 27 from the field. Everyone else was 1 for 15.

"We were just out of sync," Wanamaker said. "We just weren't making our shots. We were playing good defense, but on the offensive end it just was not there."

It was the second consecutive game in which Pitt failed to score more than 20 points in the first half. The Panthers only scored 20 in the first half against Duquesne, but they came back to win that game in double-overtime.

"You have to kind of be concerned a little bit," Wanamaker said. "Soon, we should put it all together and play a full 40 minutes."

The first half was especially comical. When Pitt finally took its first lead with 4:28 remaining the disgruntled fans gave the Panthers a Bronx cheer. Wanamaker did not make Pitt's first basket of the game until more than 6 1/2 minutes had ticked off the clock.

Pitt was 5 for 19 from the field and had 10 turnovers in the first half. The only reason the Panthers had a lead was because New Hampshire was more inept. The Wildcats were 3 for 25 from the field in the first half and turned the ball over 10 times as well.

"At one point in the first half I said to my assistant, 'Man, we're really bad on offense,' " Herrion said. "He said, 'It's OK. They're bad right now, too, so we're OK.' We're probably lucky it wasn't 40-7."

The Panthers can thank Gibbs, their leading scorer, that they were not the team on the losing end of this debacle. He was 9 for 16 from the field and scored 10 consecutive points for Pitt at the end of the first half and beginning of the second half to allow the Panthers to pull away.

Pitt led, 9-7, with less than three minutes remaining in the half before Gibbs rattled in three baskets in the final 2:54 to give the Panthers the eight-point halftime lead.

Gibbs scored Pitt's first four points of the second half and 11 of the first 14 to stake the Panthers to a 31-17 lead with 10 minutes remaining.

"On a night when we were competitive enough defensively and physically to hold a Big East team to 47 points, it's just a shame we couldn't throw the ball in the Allegheny River," Herrion said. "I told our kids you don't get these opportunities that often. If we could have scored at all, we might have had a chance to do something special."

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NOTE -- Pitt senior guard Jermaine Dixon, who has not yet played this season because of a foot injury, received a good report from doctors yesterday, and might be ready to play soon. Pitt's next game Tuesday is against Indiana night at Madison Square Garden. "He is making progress," coach Jamie Dixon said.

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