Freshman Brandin Cummings scores 30 off bench to lead Pitt past Eastern Kentucky

Pitt’s 96-56 victory against Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday night was special for freshman Brandin Cummings long before he scored 30 points and became only the fourth Pitt player to reach that benchmark in school history.

Seated courtside at Petersen Events Center, almost close enough to block one of Cummings’ shots, was his older brother Nelly, a former Pitt guard doing the color analysis for ACC Network Extra.

“To have him there, it was a great feeling,” said Cummings, who goes by the nickname Beebah. “But to also have my family there supporting me, it’s just something I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid. I always wanted to come to this school and play in this arena. It made me feel really at home to have my brother over there doing what he’s doing.”

The Lincoln Park graduate, joins Trey McGowens (twice), Justin Champagnie (twice) and Xavier Johnson — all under coach Jeff Capel — as Pitt freshmen who have reached 30 points.

Cummings, who had scored only 52 points in the first 10 games, hit six 3-pointers and 10 of 13 shots overall to set a Pitt record for points of the bench previously held by Cameron Johnson (2016), Brandin Knight (2000) and Mel Bennett (1976) at 24.

Cummings said the confidence he displayed in attempting 13 shots — eight from beyond the arc — came from “hours and hours and hours of work in the gym.”

“I’m always going to rely on my work. If I hit a few shots and I feel good, you’re going to see me out there looking confident. As a scorer, you know whenever it’s your night. Whenever I first touched the rock tonight, I knew it was my night.”

Said Capel: “The confidence comes because of the work. He’s a gym rat. He’s one of the most low-maintenance guys I’ve coached. He’s a sponge. He wants to learn. He wants to be really good.”

Cummings, who scored Pitt’s first 12 points of the game, credited his teammates with getting him the ball. Overall, Pitt recorded 21 assists on 32 made baskets, keeping the crowd of 5,948 interested after a sluggish first half.

“My teammates did an amazing job of putting me in situations where they know I’m comfortable scoring the ball,” he said. “So it really made it easy for me to go out there and do that. All the credit really goes to them.”

Said Capel: “I thought we did a great job of sharing the ball. The ball had energy. I thought that’s why we made shots in the second half.”

Cummings was called upon early because Lowe got his second foul two minutes into the game.

“We’re really close. We live together,” Cummings said. “I see him every day, talk to him every day. This is exactly what he would have wanted me to go there and do. He knows I’m prepared at any moment to go out there and do what he does.”

The game was Pitt’s first at home since Nov. 18. Despite some early struggles, Pitt improved its record to 9-2 for the first time since the 2016-17 season. Eastern Kentucky of the Atlantic Sun Conference fell to 5-5.

“Really, really proud of our guys. This was a huge win for us,” Capel said. “This is the end of this energy cycle. We’ve been on the road for a while.”

Zack Austin added 18 points, four rebounds and three blocks, Leggett 17 points and Lowe 11, with 12 assists.

Austin put Pitt’s current situation in perspective when he said, “We finally get to sleep in our own beds for more than two days. That’s going to be nice.”

With Pitt students in the midst of final exams, Austin said there’s more on his mind than basketball.

“We still have finals. I’m trying to lock in on that right now, to be honest. I had one (Wednesday), got an 82, I feel good.”

Capel noted the “outstanding” effort from Cummings, but he wanted to remind Pitt fans about Austin’s efforts — on the basketball court, too.

“Everyone will talk about Cummings’ 30 points, which they should,” Capel said. “But I thought Zack was equally as good and especially his defense on (Eastern Kentucky’s Devontae Blanton).”

Blanton came into the game with a 51.2 shooting percentage, but he missed 12 of his 17 attempts, contributing to the Colonels’ 7-for-28 effort from beyond the 3-point arc.

Pitt took control early in the second half, growing its three-point halftime lead to 50-40 with 15 minutes, 5 seconds left in the game on a dunk by Austin, who took an alley-oop pass from Lowe.

Lowe played only eight minutes in the first half but started the second with a layup off a steal in the first 22 seconds and a traditional three-point play. Several minutes later, Cummings hit two 3-point shots back-to-back to give the Panthers a 58-44 lead at 11:41. At that point, the rout was on.

Cummings’ 3s were in the middle of a 23-0 Pitt run that was as much about preventing baskets on one end as scoring on the other. Eastern Kentucky was scoreless for six minutes and scored 20 points after halftime. The Colonels shot 21.1% (8 of 38) in the second half after recording a 46.9 percentage (15 of 32) in the first.

“We just buckled down and tried to get some kills (three stops in a row),” Austin said. “We did our job.”