The game flow graph pretty nicely illustrates what Pitt did to St. John’s.

Just slow progress of pulling away as Pitt made more shots and held St. John’s in check.

It also represented the fifth time in eight Big East games that Pitt has held opponents to 54 points or fewer.

“Our defense is improving,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I thought from the beginning that the area where we could really improve was on defense. This was a little different team in that, early on, offensively we were ahead of we’ve been and behind a little bit defensively.

“This team has gradually improved defensively, and we’re seeing that the last couple of games.”

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“Give Pittsburgh a lot of credit,” St. John’s coach Norm Roberts said. “They played very, very well. They’re a great defensive team. We didn’t make any shots, but a lot [of that] had to do with their defense.

“They were really physical. They just did a very good job defensively inside. Our inside guys weren’t very aggressive at all. And, in a game like this, against a great team, you have to be aggressive.”

Now, not to take away from the game, but let’s be very clear. St. John’s is not a good team offensively. In conference play they have cracked 70 points only once in eight tries. In 7 of their 21 games they have scored 60 or less.

That said, Pitt did an excellent job of shutting Lamont Hamilton down. Lots of credit went to Levon Kendall.

“The guys were hassling me, to make sure I didn’t get scored on too much,” he said. “They did a good job of that.”

Kendall did an even better job on Hamilton.

Led by Kendall’s defensive effort on the noted Panthers-killer, No. 9 Pitt rolled past St. John’s, 72-46, in a Saturday afternoon laugher at Petersen Events Center.

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“That’s something the coaches wanted,” Kendall said. “They knew they were going to try to exploit that matchup, so they stuck me on him from the get-go and it worked out well. We did a good job. He really never got going.”

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“I couldn’t find myself. I couldn’t get in a rhythm,” Hamilton said. “Their big men play big and strong. I shouldn’t have tried to overpower them. I should have faced them up.”

Said Kendall: “We really wanted to shut them down. We had a bit of payback with them. They’ve had our number the past couple of years and that was definitely something we were aware of.”

That’s why I (and others) were a little more nervous about this game.

On the Red Storm side of things, nothing good came of this game.

There were any number of ways to analyze what occurred yesterday, none of them positive for St. John’s (12-9, 3-5 Big East).

Anthony Mason Jr. was the team’s leading scorer with only 10 points – and seven of those came during garbage time, after the Panthers (19-3, 7-1) extended their lead to 28 points. The Red Storm took almost half its field-goal attempts from behind the arc, never a good sign, and missed 20 of 24, including all 14 in the second half. After forcing 31 turnovers in consecutive upsets of Syracuse and Notre Dame, the visitors were credited with only seven takeaways.

“They’re a great defensive team,” Roberts said after his team’s two-game winning streak met an inglorious end. “We didn’t make any shots today but that’s due a lot to their defense.”

What disturbed the coach most was the lack of activity among his big men, most notably Hamilton. “Our inside guys,” he said, “were not very aggressive at all.”

Being beaten into submission will do that.