Every time Pittsburgh absolutely had to have a basket, they got a basket.
Every time Duke absolutely had to have a stop, Pitt got a basket. Hand in the face, shot-clock running down, half-court, transition, you name it.
If they missed they grabbed the offensive rebound and started over.
That’s obviously an over-simplified explanation for Pitt’s 80-76 upset win Saturday night in Cameron. One of the reasons they were able to hit 51 percent from the field is that Duke’s best defender was sitting on the bench with a knee injury.
Joining Mark Mitchell in street clothes was senior co-captain Jeremy Roach and his poise and leadership certainly would have come in handy on a night when the visitors were more experienced, tougher and more poised, at least more poised until a NSFW post-game parade on the scorer’s table.
And be honest. We all knew those slow starts were going to bite Duke in the butt one day. This time it was a 9-0 blitz, the Panthers scoring seemingly at will against Duke.
Jon Scheyer called timeout down 9-0.
His message?
“Defend. You gotta guard the ball. You gotta defend. I thought we came out passive. I thought the defense impacted our offense, because we weren’t ready at the level we needed to be.”
Duke settled down and fought back. Jared McCain gave Duke a 26-23 lead with a 3-pointer. But Pitt responded with a 9-0 run.
Duke cut the deficit to four points at 32-28, 34-30 and 36-32. Pitt responded with baskets all three times, the final two on offensive rebounds.
T. J. Power converted an offensive rebound at the buzzer and Duke went into the locker room down 38-34.
There was a lot not to like about Duke’s first-half performance but one thing stood out. Pitt outrebounded Duke 20-10, with Power’s offensive rebound Duke’s only one.
Kyle Filipowski had one rebound at the half.
“I think rebounding a lot of time comes down to will and mindset and we didn’t have that,” Scheyer said.
Ryan Young agreed.
“Rebounding is just toughness and effort, so that’s something that can’t happen and we need to look at ourselves in the mirror.”
Duke fell behind 41-34 but caught up again, 45-45, on a short McCain jumper.
Pitt scored on its next two possessions to go up 49-45. Duke went up 50-49 on two foul shots by Jaylen Blakes--his only points of the game-but Hinson hit 3-pointers on Pitt’s next two possessions.
I’m sure you’re detecting a trend by now.
Duke tied at 55-55 but Pitt scored on the next possession, converting another offensive rebound. McCain tied it at 57-57 but Jaland Lowe answered with a floater in the lane, followed by an Ismmael Leggett layup in transition off an awful Filipowski turnover.
Filipowski answered with a 3 and Caleb Foster gave Duke a 62-61 with two foul shots.
Lowe answered with a 3.
Filipowski gave Duke is last lead, 65-64, with an old-fashioned 3-point play.
Hinson got a 3 off an offensive rebound. Duke got it to one with 1:10 left but Lowe hit a 3 and Duke was out of time.
Duke scored to tie or take the lead six times in the second half and every time Pittsburgh scored on their next possession.
“A lot of it came down to guarding the ball,” Scheyer said. “I thought they had a couple of tough shots. I’m sure I’ll see some communication things and all that. But I just come back to mindset. You gotta find a way. And we didn’t do that tonight.”
“We just couldn’t string together stops,” McCain acknowledged. “We should have just guarded the ball better, bullied the ball better. There were a lot of things on our part we could have done better.”
Hinson came into the game shooting just under 40 percent on the season from beyond the arc but was 7 for 7.
He ended with 24 points.
McCain led Duke with 20 points, followed by Filipowski (19), Foster (16) and Proctor (11). But Filipowski had five of Duke’s 11 turnovers and pulled down a measly five rebounds, none offensive. Duke had four offensive rebounds, as Pitt outscored Duke in the paint 32-18.
And next man up? Blakes, T.J. Power and Sean Stewart were the three players who gained extra minutes with Roach and Mitchell out and the trio combined for four points in 28 combined minutes.
Scheyer said neither Mitchell nor Roach had practiced five on five this week and with Duke’s next game Tuesday night at Louisville, not much time to check that box.
“We’re gonna fix it,” Scheyer summed up. “We’re gonna get better.”
Hi Jim, Do you recall an opposing team member jumping on the scorer's table after a win as we witnessed last night? My family and I were trying to remember if this has happened in CAMERON in let's say the last 20 years. We haven't lost in Cameron very often so I could not recall another time but apparently I am wrong about this! Thanks!!
Glass half full fans: Duke played without 2 of our starters, Pitt shot the lights out and we still almost won.
Glass half empty fans: As Tennessee proved in the NCAA tournament loss, Duke was a soft team and still is.