By Maggie Samole / Sports editor

For the first eight minutes of their matchup against Oral Roberts, Pitt’s men’s basketball team played well, but just couldn’t seem to pull away.

However, after a 3-pointer from junior point guard Levance Fields at the 11:40 mark of the first half, the Panthers seized the lead and sprinted to an 82-63 opening-round victory in the NCAA tournament.

The first few minutes of the game seemed to wreak havoc on both the Panthers and the Golden Eagles as Denver’s mile-high elevation had players sucking for air. Pitt seemed to adjust quickly, though, and simply out-played Oral Roberts.

Fields sparked the Panthers to nearly double up the Golden Eagles at halftime, 47-24. He netted 16 of his game-high 23 points in the first frame. Four other Panthers reached double-digit scoring in the game, including Keith Benjamin, Sam Young, Ronald Ramon and Gilbert Brown.

Pitt used a 15-0 run over a five-minute span in the first half to put the game out of reach.

Pitt held Oral Roberts’ shooting from the floor to only 34.9 percent during the game with their trademark stifling defense. The Panthers also out-muscled the Golden Eagles in the paint, winning the battle of the boards 50 to 33. DeJuan Blair, Benjamin and Brown accounted for nearly as many rebounds between them as the entire Oral Roberts team as they combined for 28 boards.

Oral Roberts came out quick to start the second half when Andre Hardy opened the frame’s scoring with a resounding dunk. However, the Panthers’ first half hustle overflowed into the second and they continued to pull away. They increased their lead to as much as 26 points and the Golden Eagles got no closer than within 16 with 6:21 remaining in the game.

The Panthers, a No. 4-seed, will now face the fifth-ranked Michigan State Spartans on Saturday at a time to be announced. The Spartans beat 12-seed Temple in the first round, 72-61. Raymar Morgan led Michigan State to victory with his balanced performance of 15 points, four rebounds, three steals and three assists.