In a league all their own
Two freshman superstars too much for outmanned Pitt team to handle in loss to No.2 Blue Devils
There was a reason for all this, everything that preceded and surrounded Pitt’s meeting Tuesday with Duke.
There was a reason students started lining up inside the Petersen Events Center lobby nearly 12 hours before the game began. There was a reason it had been sold out for weeks in a venue that had all the ambiance of a morgue for much of the previous three years. There was a reason JayZ was sitting courtside. There was a reason Pitt’s players and coaches were asked questions heading into the matchup that portrayed their opponent more as a collection of mythical, all-powerful creatures than the group of 18- to 22-year-olds that it is.
Over a 40-minute period, from virtually the moment they claimed the opening tip, the Blue Devils, specifically their transcendent young stars, showed exactly why.
Freshmen Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett, prodigious forwards widely projected as the top two picks in the upcoming NBA draft, scored 25 and 26 points, respectively,
as the No. 2 Blue Devils used their size and overwhelming talent to coast by the Panthers, 79-64, in firstyear Pitt coach Jeff Capel’s first game against his alma mater, where he also served as an assistant coach for the previous seven seasons.
A team led by a promising, potentially programchanging group of freshmen was forced to contend with a squad anchored by perhaps the most-talented and most-hyped group of freshmen in the history of the sport. A program that Capel aspires to craft Pitt in the image of — and perhaps one day make it something resembling a peer — saw what such a program looks like in its most star-studded, imposing form.
Much of what transpired on the court, even for a game in which Duke was favored by only 13½ and won by 15, reflected that disparity.
The early minutes bordered on dreamlike for the Panthers (12-7, 2-4 ACC). In front of an energized, engaged home crowd, the team’s players, most notably its youngest ones, showed no signs of being tentative, afraid or overwhelmed by an opponent who dwarfed them in both sheer size and prestige. Freshmen Xavier Johnson and Trey McGowens were able to knife through the Duke defense and get to the rim, crashing into the Blue Devils’ biggest bodies and finishing over them.
After a 3-pointer from senior Jared Wilson-Frame swished through the net with 13 minutes remaining in the half, Pitt had a 16-15 lead and the arena rocked in a way it hadn’t in years.
The ecstasy rather abruptly wore off.
Following the WilsonFrame 3, Duke responded with the kind of effectiveness and ferocity that makes it such a dangerous opponent for any team. Over a period of 3:10, the Blue Devils (16-2, 5-1 ACC) scored 12 unanswered points, with seven coming from Williamson and five from Barrett to seize an 11point advantage.
That run was aided in part by the Panthers’ offensive woes, as they went 5:10 without a point and 7:19 without a point from someone other than WilsonFrame. By halftime, Duke’s lead was 44-25, and much of the luster that had enveloped the gym and the fans inside of it was gone.
With the loss, Pitt has dropped six of its seven meetings to Duke since joining the ACC in 2013, with the lone victory coming in February 2016.
A Blue Devils team that gets offensive rebounds on nearly 40 percent of its missed shots this season finished with 16 offensive boards, off of which they were able to get 18 secondchance points.
Pitt languished offensively for much of the evening, shooting 41.5 percent from the field, missing 12 of its 15 attempts from 3 and averaging just 0.93 points per possession, struggling to break through against a Duke zone populated by the long, athletic bodies that gave it fits on both ends of the court. Only six of Pitt’s 22 made field goals were assisted.
Fighting through a black eye he suffered three days earlier in a loss at Syracuse, McGowens finished with a team-high 14 points on 7-of-14 shooting while Wilson-Frame and center Terrell Brown added 12 apiece. Johnson finished with eight points, snapping an 18-game streak in which he had scored at least 10. No Panthers player finished with more than six rebounds (Brown) or two assists (guard Sidy N’Dir).