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Notes from the Blue-Gold scrimmage

Pitt held its annual Blue-Gold scrimmage on Friday night, and here is a collection of notes on the event.
- The Blue Team beat the Gold Team 66-52 in Friday night's scrimmage at the Petersen Events Center. Junior guard Ashton Gibbs led all scorers with 22 points and also recorded 5 assists and 3 rebounds. Senior guard Brad Wanamaker had a Gold Team-high 19 points.
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- Starting lineups for the two teams:
Blue Team
Point guard - Ashton Gibbs
Shooting guard - Cameron Wright
Small forward - Lamar Patterson
Power forward - Talib Zanna
Center - Gary McGhee
Gold Team
Point guard - Travon Woodall
Shooting guard - Brad Wanamaker
Small forward - J.J. Moore
Power forward - Nasir Robinson
Center - Dante Taylor
Redshirt senior Gilbert Brown (hamstring) did not play and is out indefinitely, although he is not expected to miss the season-opener against Rhode Island on November 8th.
- Gibbs was the leading scorer in the scrimmage, but Zanna might have stolen the show. The redshirt freshman forward scored 15 points and grabbed 9 rebounds - 4 on the offensive end - while working primarily at power forward but also shifting to center at points.
"He's tough," Gibbs said of Zanna. "I think he's one of our best rebounders, and you haven't really seen him yet. Even in practice last year, he was doing major things to our starters. He was doing major things. So I knew it was going to be a big year for him, and he's off to a good start."
- McGhee was Zanna's front-court teammate, and he also fell one rebound short of a double-double with 10 points and 9 rebounds in the scrimmage, which consisted of two 16-minute periods. .
- J.J. Richardson subbed at power forward for the Gold Team in the first half and the initial eight-and-a-half minutes of the second half before switching to the Blue Team, where he worked at power forward and center. Richardson scored two points and grabbed four rebounds.
- Freshman Isaiah Epps worked off the bench at both point guard and shooting guard for the Gold Team. He did not score on two shots but did record two assists.
- Redshirt freshman Lamar Patterson also came off the bench for the Blue Team and worked exclusively at small forward. Official stats had Patterson with 11 points (3/6 FG, 1/1 3PT, 4/4 FT) and three assists.
- The Blue and Gold Team's combined for 23 assists and 20 turnovers. The Blue Team had 12 assists and 9 turnovers, while the Gold Team had 11 assists and 11 turnovers.
- The Gold Team (with big men Robinson, Taylor, and Richardson) out-rebounded the Blue Team (McGhee, Zanna, and walk-on Aron Nwankwo) 29-26. But the Blue Team's 53.3% FG rate topped the Gold Team's 39.6%.
- After the scrimmage was over, Moore, Robinson, and Wright competed in a dunk contest, with Pittsburgh Steelers Lawrence Timmons, Jeff Reed, and LaMarr Woodley served as guest judges for the event.
Moore, Robinson, and Wright each made two dunks, but Moore's leap over three standing fans took home the prize.
"He was actually my favorite to win it from the beginning, so he proved me right," Gibbs said about Moore. "He keeps his body in control like no other."
Moore scored three points in the first half, completing an alley-oop from Woodall and then hitting one-of-two free throws. Early in the second half, Moore took Patterson off the dribble for a lay-up, and he hit two more baskets in the final five minutes to finish with nine points on 4-of-7 shooting.
"He can get a lot of rebounds, as you can see he's athletic, and he can knock down shots," Gibbs said. "A lot of his game is very similar to Gil, and he works hard. So the best is yet to come for him."
- While Zanna spent time at power forward and center - at least in part because McGhee was the Blue Team's only center - Taylor only played center for the Gold Team. Moore (small forward), Robinson (power forward), and Patterson (small forward) also spent all of their time at one position.
Gibbs also worked exclusively at point guard, but that was largely a result of the fact that the Blue Team did not have any other point guards (Wright and walk-on Nick Rivers were the only other guards on the team).
- Official attendance was reported as 4,295.
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