Apparently, Gilbert Brown wasn't aware that not a lot was expected of him last night in his first game in nine months. After all, Brown only joined the team three days ago after serving an academic suspension during the first semester and last played in Pitt's loss to Villanova in the NCAA tournament in March.

Showing no ill effects from the long layoff, Brown gave Pitt an immediate jolt of energy and looked to be in midseason form in Pitt's 74-49 blowout of Ohio University at the Petersen Events Center.

Brown scored 11 points, going 4 for 4 from the field and 1 for 1 from the free-throw line in 18 well-played minutes.

He played his previous 72 games in a Pitt uniform as a small forward, but last night he played exclusively power forward and is expected to continue in that role for the rest of the season.

"It was a big adjustment coming into this first game with only a couple of practices, switching positions," said Brown, a 6-foot-6 redshirt junior. "Just having a thorough understanding of the offense really helped me get through this transition that I went through."

Brown entered the game with 12:48 remaining in the first half and picked up two quick fouls. Coach Jamie Dixon sat him down for a while, but reinserted him into the game with 4:19 left before halftime. Brown made his first basket with a little more than a minute remaining.

Early in the second half, Brown converted a three-point play. He also nailed his only two 3-point shot attempts.

Through it all, he never looked tired.

"I definitely put in hard work and effort to make sure I came back in shape and prepared to contribute to the team," he said.

Brown is Pitt's most experienced player, and his presence on the floor made a big impression on his teammates.

"Gil is a great player," sophomore guard Ashton Gibbs said. "I think he gave us a lot of energy. We're expecting big things from him, and I think there is more to come."

Gibbs led all scorers with 15 points. It was his 10th game in double figures. Jermaine Dixon scored a season-high 14 points and Nasir Robinson registered 10, sinking all five attempts from the field. Junior guard Brad Wanamaker contributed an unconventional double-double with 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

In the final non-conference tune-up before Big East Conference play begins Monday night, the Panthers (10-2) held their opponent to fewer than 50 points for the fourth time this season.

Ohio (7-4) shot just 23.9 percent from the field (17 for 71). That percentage is the lowest for the Bobcats in 10 seasons and the second-lowest percentage by an opponent in Jamie Dixon's tenure as head coach. New Hampshire shot 23.5 percent earlier this season.

"Our defense was better," Dixon said. "We've strived to be a very good defensive team this year. I think we're headed in the right direction. As we get more used to what we're trying to do as a team we'll improve and get better. You've seen a team really get better and better. The main thing is we're getting our guys less minutes now. That's the biggest thing now."

Pitt took a 20-3 lead after the first five minutes and never looked back. The Panthers made 7 of their first 10 shots from the field while Ohio opened the game 1 for 10.

Ohio coach John Groce had to call a timeout before the first broadcast timeout to halt Pitt's momentum. It worked for a while. The Bobcats clawed back into the game and trimmed the lead to eight points with less than three minutes remaining in the half.

But Pitt scored 8 of the final 10 points of the half to take a 38-24 lead into the locker room.

"Their toughness and our lack of toughness was the reason for the disparity in the score," Groce said. "We talked to our guys about playing with toughness. Pitt did that from start to finish. Their screening, their physicality, their rebounding really wore on us over 40 minutes."

Pitt won every aspect of the game except for one troublesome category. The Panthers, who shot 56 percent from the field, won the rebounding battle, 48-38, and had 26 assists on 29 field goals. The only negative was a season-high 21 turnovers, 14 of which came in the second half when the Panthers failed to close the game in style.

"That was the only drawback," Dixon said. "We got careless with the ball. The disappointing thing was we were good at it until late."

Check out Ray Fittipaldo's Pitt B-Ball blog and Paul Zeise's Pitt Stop videos about football exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.