Ashton Gibbs scores 18 as Pittsburgh Panthers beat Duquesne Dukes 80-69: NCAA Recap
Ashton Gibbs scored a team-high 18 points on 4 for 9 shooting from three-point range as Pittsburgh Panthers recorded their fourth consecutive victory with an 80-69 win over Duquesne Dukes on November 30, 2011.
It was eleventh consecutive city game for the Panthers, who are 6-1 in the tournament so far. The Dukes, meanwhile, dropped to 4-3 in front of 15,880 basketball fans at the CONSOL Energy Center - the largest crowd ever to watch
a City Game.
"I do not think we played as tough or as intelligently tonight as we are capable," Duquesne head coach Ron Everhart said of their poor performance after an 84-65 victory over Louisiana-Lafayettev in the previous game.
Pittsburgh came out with a balance offensive attack as eight of their players posted at least eight points in the victory, including three with double figures.
Forward Dante Taylor provided a spark off the bench with a game-high 11 rebounds and 15 points while Lamar Patterson added 10 points. Freshman guard John Johnson, who is averaging just 3.8 points per game this season, ended with
nine points on a perfect 3 for 3 shooting from downtown.
“John Johnson has a real focus and a real determination that really impresses me,” Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said. “He’s going to be a really good player.”
Guard Sean Johnson led the Dukes with a game-high 19 points on 5 for 10 shooting from the field and 8 for 9 from free throw line. T.J. McConnell tallied 15 points, stole the ball four times and dished out three assist.
Pittsburgh displayed great shooting accuracy across the board: 53.7 percent (29 for 54) from the field including 52.4 percent (11 for 21) on triples and 73.3 percent (11 for 15) on free throws. Additionally, they out-rebounded
the Dukes 35-14.
However, the Dukes stayed close for most of the games with their ability to force turnovers. On the night, they forced the Panthers into 23 turnovers, from which they scored 27 points.
B.J. Monteiro scored five of his points within the first five minutes of the opening half to hand the Dukes an early 5-10 lead. Pittsburgh responded in a big way and sprinted to 14-2 run for a 19-12 advantage.
Duquesne punctuated six unanswered points to cut their deficit to just one, 19-18, with 8:24 remaining, however the Panther scored the next seven points to make it 26-18. Panthers continued to play quality shots and widened their
lead to double-digits with 4:16 remaining. By the end of the half they were leading by 38-27.
Dukes started strongly in the second half and trimmed Pittsburgh’s lead to five within the first three minutes.
Gibbs hit a shot from down town and followed it with a jumper to push their lead back to double, 45-35, but minutes later, Dukes again found themselves four-point shy at 50-46.
However, the Panthers reeled off a 10-4 spurt again and there was no looking back after that.
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