Duke looked set to run past Pitt on Tuesday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Pitt had other ideas, however. The Panthers put on a furious run to cut it to a 3-point game before ultimately falling by a score of 79-67.
Pitt found itself trailing 62-45 with 13:26 remaining in the game. The Panthers battled all the way back to cut the deficit to 68-65 with 4:27 left. The Blue Devils locked down Pitt in the final minutes and eventually pulled away to secure the win and improve to 17-3 on the season.
It was a homecoming for Pitt head coach Jeff Capel. He made his return to Cameron Indoor Stadium for the first time since taking the head job at Pitt. Capel's alma mater got the best of his new team, but not without a fight by his young squad.
Vernon Carey is a dominant force, and Pitt really had no answer for him on Tuesday. The 6'10" freshman forward is perhaps the best freshman in America and a projected lottery pick, and he shined on Tuesday with 26 points and 13 rebounds.
Duke's not a great 3-point shooting team by trade, but the Blue Devils made the Panthers pay from behind the arc multiple times and connected on nine 3-pointers. Senior guard Jordan Goldwire entered tonight's game averaging 4.1 points per game, but he knocked-down three first half 3-pointers and finished with 13 points.
Pitt was trailing 20-16 with 8:33 left in the first half, but Capel was hit with a technical foul and Duke started to grab control from that point and throughout the rest of the first half, as Duke entered halftime with a 45-34 lead. The early going of the second half looked like it would be a runaway, but Pitt did make a furious rally to make it a close game in the closing minutes.
Pitt was led offensively by a breakout performance from sophomore forward Au'Diese Toney. He finished with a career-high 27 points and had some really impressive highlight reel plays in front of a national television audience.
Justin Champagnie continued his strong stretch of play by contributing 13 points and 7 rebounds.
Trey McGowens' recent struggles continued on Tuesday. He finished with 2 points and 6 assists, but was 0-for-7 from the floor. The dominance of Carey for Duke caused foul troubles for Pitt and forced seldom-used freshman forward Abdul Karim Coulibaly into meaningful action and he played surprisingly well and his layup actually pulled Pitt to within 3 points. The freshman finished with 8 points and 4 rebounds.
Jeff Capel is now 0-2 against his alma-mater as the head coach of Pitt. The Panthers lost to Duke by a score of 79-64. Pitt now has lost five straight games to the Blue Devils. Pitt's last win over Duke occurred back on February 28, 2016 - a 76-62 Panthers victory at home.
Pitt's record slips to 13-8 on the season. The Panthers are now 4-6 in ACC play and have lost two in a row. Capel's squad will look to get back on track on Sunday, as Pitt is set to host Miami for a noon tip-off at the Petersen Events Center. Pitt will be looking to avenge a 66-58 loss to the Hurricanes that happened back on January 12th.
