The Pitt Panthers came into Cameron Indoor Stadium with confidence and swagger and a 12-2 record and a top 3 offense in the ACC. They left the building bewildered and on the wrong side of a 29 point blowout. The score was probably worse than it looks, considering Pitt was within 11 points at the 8:00 mark of the second half. Unfortunately for Pitt, after 2 live ball turnovers from Duke, a timeout from Jon Scheyer in disgust, they never scored again. Duke ended the game on an electric 18-0 run to pick-up the victory.
Duke began the game with a 5 point punch, but Pitt was unfazed. They punched back, even taking the lead at the 11:16 mark of the first half, 12-11. Duke finished the half strong with a 23-15 run for a 10 point half-time lead. Duke started the second half strong with an 8-4 run, with 7 of those points scored by freshman Cooper Flagg. Pitt was unfazed again, even after 2 huge monstrous dunks from Cooper Flagg Pitt confidently hit shots and kept the game within reach, aided by Duke sloppiness but after a timeout from Jon Scheyer Duke regained their composure and put in on the Panthers to end the game on that 18-0 run.
Cooper Flagg once again paced the Blue Devils with yet another double-double. The freshman forward scored a team high 19 points, pulled down a team high 10 rebounds, dished a team high 5 assists as well. Every Duke starter scored in double-figures, including Kon Knueppel who scored 17 points, hitting 4 of his 7 3-point attempts. Tyrese Proctor, who served as Duke’s outlet in waning shot clock situations, added 13 points and 4 assists, including several dagger 3’s during Duke’s end of game run. Khaman Maluach and Sion James scored 11 and 10 points respectively, with James adding 7 boards and 4 assists and Maluach added 8 rebounds.
The Blue Devils held a Pitt team who was averaging over 80 points a game to just 47, while shooting 50% from the field and 55% from beyond the arc. The Blue Devils also out-rebounded the Panthers 41-26
