Dukes push Pitt before falling
PITTSBURGH — Pitt never plays a zone defense — well, hardly ever. Then again, it hardly ever plays this badly under coach Jamie Dixon, and desperate times called for desperate measures.
Ashton Gibbs shook off a poor shooting night to make a pair of 3-pointers in the second overtime and Pittsburgh rallied from a 16-point deficit in the second half to beat city rival Duquesne for the ninth consecutive time, 67-58 on Wednesday night.
Gibbs was 1 of 12 before hitting two of three shots plus two free throws in the second overtime, after the Panthers (6-1) surged back from a 40-24 deficit against player-thin Duquesne (5-2). The comeback began about the time Pitt switched from its usual man-to-man defense into a 2-3 zone.
The zone baffled Duquesne, which used only one reserve for more than a couple of minutes until three players fouled out during the final college basketball game at Mellon Arena.
"Did we go into a zone?" Dixon said. "I couldn't believe we stayed in a zone that long. I think we surprised them by using it."
Surprised them — and shut them down. Bill Clark scored 23 points for the Dukes, who never trailed until Brad Wanamaker's basket for Pitt put the Panthers up 55-53 with 2:14 remaining in the first overtime. The Dukes scored only seven points in the final 17 minutes.
"We looked like a deer in the headlights late in the game," a disappointed Dukes coach Ron Everhart said. "I thought we gave great effort, but we weren't a very intelligent team at times. We got tired. And they did a better job against our zone than we did against theirs."
Gibbs scored 15 and Wanamaker 14 for Pitt, which came back from a 13-point deficit to beat Wofford 63-60 in its opener.
"I knew my shots would start falling sooner or later," Gibbs said — and it was much later in the first double-overtime game between schools located only two miles apart.
The Panthers shot only 33.9 percent (19 of 56) to Duquesne's 31.8 percent as Dukes guards Eric Evans (3 of 17) and Jason Duty (1 of 8) made only 4 of 25 shots. An unguarded Evans also fumbled a pass out of bounds as Duquesne was trying to get off a potential winning shot in the closing seconds of regulation.
Pitt made 23 of 43 free throws to Duquesne's 7 of 14 and the Dukes were 9 of 33 to Pitt's 6 of 24 from 3-point range as both teams shot badly.
"As poorly as we played, we told the kids to get doing what we do every day in practice, keeping do what we do and we'd find a way," Dixon said. "We're winners and we found a way."
Duquesne's Damian Saunders, averaging 16.7 points and 17.5 rebounds, was held to six points and eight rebounds before fouling out with 3:03 remaining trying to defend against Gary McGhee's dunk that made it 51-50. Pitt gained its first tie at 53-53 on Gibbs' 3-pointer with just over two minutes remaining — the last basket of regulation.
Pitt matched its nine-game winning streak against Duquesne from 1982-88, when the schools occasionally played twice a season.
The Dukes, an NIT team last season as Pitt was advancing to the NCAA round of eight, led by as many as 13 in the first half.
Pitt is currently without any starters from that 31-5 team of last season but is deeper off the bench than Duquesne, which is missing star guard Melquan Bolding (broken left hand). That depth began showing as Pitt went on a 16-5 run that cut it to 45-40 with 9:48 remaining.
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