Barry Dunning Jr. ignites Pitt to blowout win over Bucknell

A quadruply deflating long weekend for Pitt athletics began when Jeff Capel and Co. lost by 22 points to West Virginia on the road Thursday.

Then, women’s volleyball lost in five sets to No. 5 Stanford on Friday, No. 9 Notre Dame dispatched the Panthers on the gridiron Saturday and Tory Verdi and the women’s basketball squad were defeated at home by Division III Scranton on Sunday.

Amidst this backdrop of athletics-wide futility, Capel and the Panthers welcomed Bucknell of the Patriot League to Petersen Events Center for game No. 5 of the 2025-26 campaign.

Behind a breakout game from Barry Dunning Jr., who exploded for 23 points, Pitt (4-1) got back in the win column, taking down the Bison, 84-50.

“I’m really proud of how we bounced back,” Capel said afterward. “One of the things we talked about was, you find out who you are when you’re in adverse situations. This was the first time we had faced any adversity this season coming off of a loss. … I just thought we did an outstanding job on the defensive end.”

Dunning, a game after Capel played him only two minutes vs. WVU, caught fire from long range, scoring 21 of his points from beyond the arc, while going 8 of 13 from the floor (7 of 11 from deep).

He also added seven rebounds, second to Papa Amadou Kante’s 11 for the team lead.

Omari Witherspoon, Brandin Cummings, Nojus Indrusaitis and Cam Corhen contributed 11 points each.

As a team, Pitt shot 50.8% (31 of 61) from the floor and 52% (13 of 25) from deep and out-rebounded Bucknell, 42-29.

The Panthers led by 13 at halftime and outscored Bucknell, 25-7, over the first 10 minutes of the final half to take control.

The Panthers and Bison (2-3) traded the lead six times leading into the under-12 media timeout of the opening half.

With 11:41 to go before halftime, the score was tied 11-11.

Coming out of the break, a nice feed from the paint by Dunning Jr. to Damarco Minor behind the arc resulted in a 14-11 Panthers lead.

With 9:50 remaining in the half, Pitt was up 18-11, courtesy of a 9-0 run that saw Witherspoon hit a layup and Dunning finish after driving hard to the rim.

It was by Dunning’s hand that the Panthers went up 21-11 soon thereafter, as he drained a shot from long range at the 9:23 mark.

“(Dunning) played with a force that we need to see all the time,” Capel said. “Obviously, he can shoot the basketball. He’s not shot the ball well for us this year, but I thought he shot it well because he played with such great force. He defended well, he was in passing lanes, he talked. … It led to a really, really outstanding performance.”

A 12-0 Panthers run finally ended when Bucknell leading scorer Amon Dorries (15.5 points per game) hit a free throw, making it 21-12 with 8:01 before halftime.

The Bison closed the gap to 21-17 with a mini-run, but with four minutes to play in the half, Pitt was back on top 28-17 after Cummings stole the ball from Aleksander Pachucki at halfcourt and took it the other way for an easy layup.

Dunning stayed hot as the first half wound down, draining his third 3-pointer with 1:52 to go to craft a 33-22 Panthers lead.

At halftime, Pitt led 38-25, again receiving a boost from Dunning, who hit another 3-pointer to lead all scorers after 20 minutes of play with 14 points.

“It felt pretty good just staying the course, continuing to do my work and take advantage of an opportunity,” Dunning said. “… I most definitely came out with an aggressive mindset. I just told myself, ‘Hey, go play hard and put all that energy into playing hard.’ ”

Pitt scored the first nine points of the second half to take a 46-25 lead with 18:05 remaining.

After the Bison finally responded with a bucket, Cummings hit another 3-pointer, and Roman Siulepa slammed down a dunk on the fastbreak to make it a 51-27 game with 16:26 to play.

With just under 13 minutes left, it was a 60-27 game, as Dunning hit two more 3s in quick succession, and the Bison struggled to get anything going offensively.

A 3-pointer by Indrusaitis with a bit under nine minutes to go increased Pitt’s lead to 68-34.

Pitt led by as much as 40 in the second half.

“I’m really proud of our team,” Capel said. “Hopefully, it’s something we can build on.”