The Pitt/West Virginia rivalry is called the Backyard Brawl, and Pitt’s Guillermo Diaz Graham was ready to take that label literally only 34 seconds into the Panthers’ 86-62 victory Friday night at Petersen Events Center.

Diaz Graham was hit in the mouth while trying to block a shot by West Virginia’s Amani Hansberry, drawing a flagrant foul call against the WVU forward. Diaz Graham was knocked to the floor and appeared dazed before getting to his feet and walking into the locker room with a trainer.

Only three minutes later, Diaz Graham ran out of the locker room with two stitches in his lip and sat down on the Pitt bench. When he returned to the floor, he hit a 3-pointer and grabbed a rebound in his first minute back.

“He got me fired up,” said the normally easy-going junior forward. “When I came back I was ready to kill. I was cussing. I was mad.”

Pitt coaches want to see Diaz Graham play with passion, but also control himself. He did that, finishing with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Senior guard Damian Dunn said he liked what he saw from Diaz Graham.

“Maybe we have to punch him in the mouth every game and get him fired up,” he said. “We kind of felt early on they were being aggressive. We took that as a little bit of adversity. We overcame it and punched back a little bit.”

Count coach Jeff Capel among those impressed by Diaz Graham’s response.

“It was awesome. I thought it was great to see Guillermo come back in the game with such fire,” he said. “Hopefully, that’s something we can bottle up and get from him every game. But our whole team had it. We were ready to go. We were dialed up from the beginning.

“Our guys understood there’s a different energy in the building. We’re playing against a rival from a really good conference. This was a big-time game for us, an important game.”

The Panthers’ scoring was led by guards Dunn and Ishmael Leggett, who repeatedly muscled their way into the paint for baskets. Dunn collected 23 points and Leggett 15. They combined to hit 14 of 25 shots (56%).

Cam Corhen, at 6-foot-10, hit his first 3-pointer of the season and finished with 14 points. Jaland Lowe struggled from the field and hit only 2 of 11 shots, finishing with eight points, nine rebounds and five assists. He is 5 of 22 in the past two games.

“He’s not shot the ball the past two games like he’s capable,” Capel said. “He’s learning. One of the things I talked to Jaland about, last year he was the fourth guy on the scouting report. This year, he’s the first, or he’s 1 and 1A (with Leggett). That’s a big difference. Teams gear up for you a little bit differently.

“The last two games, he’s had a big impact on the game without scoring. He doesn’t necessarily have to score a bunch of points. He will score. I’m not worried about that.”

Pitt turned the Brawl into a one-sided blitz early, much to the delight of most of the crowd of 10,744. The margin of victory was the largest for Pitt in the Brawl since an 82-46 victory Feb. 12, 2003, at the Pete. Pitt led 44-22 at halftime, but its largest lead was 78-47 with 5 minutes, 2 seconds left in the game.

“I thought we took a step forward, showing a little bit of growth, a little bit of maturity to be able to sustain (the lead) and extend it,” Capel said.

Supported by an all-time record attendance from the Oakland Zoo (3,200 tickets), the Panthers are 4-0 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2013, their initial season in the ACC. WVU fell to 2-1.

Pitt also stretched its football/basketball winning streak against WVU to three, the longest in 15 years. Pitt defeated West Virginia in football two months ago after a basketball victory in Morgantown in 2023.

“These guys deserve to have a crowd like that and, hopefully, it’s something that we can have going forward all the time,” Capel said. “This team is an exciting team to watch. I know the Zoo appreciates it and, hopefully, everyone appreciates it.

“We need them to be great again on Monday (when Pitt plays Virginia Military Institute).”

Pitt has scored 96, 83, 83 and 86 points in its four victories, but Capel praised the defense.

“Really, really proud of our performance, especially on the defensive end,” he said. “I thought our guys were incredibly locked in right from the beginning.”

WVU ended up shooting only 38.7% (24 of 62).

The Mountaineers’ best player, Tucker DeVries, was an honorable mention All-American last season at Drake while playing for his father, coach Darian DeVries, now the coach at West Virginia. DeVries averaged 13.9, 18.6 and 21.6 points the past three seasons at Drake, and he had scored a total of 35 in WVU’s first two games, victories against Robert Morris and UMass.

But Pitt clamped its defense on him, allowing DeVries only six points on 2-of-10 shooting before he fouled out with 4:21 left in the game. Dunn and Leggett chased DeVries all over the court, rarely offering him an open shot.

“We had an awareness for DeVries,” Capel said. “They really did an unbelievable job containing a really, really good scorer.”

Dunn and Leggett also took guard Javon Small out of the game, holding WVU’s two best scorers to seven baskets in 24 attempts.

Dunn said the plan was to “just stay on (DeVries’) hip, just to be disciplined and not fall for shot fakes. Chase him around and make him take contested 2s.”

Looking at the big picture, Capel said he likes the progress his team is making early in the season.

“We still have a long ways to go to be the team we want to be,” he said. “But I think we’ve gotten better in each game.

“Certainly, (Friday) the competition level was increased, and I like the way we stepped up to that challen

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