Pitt vs. Duquesne: Panthers roll over Dukes in annual City Game, 66-45

As expected, Pitt won against Duquesne in the annual City Game. The margin of victory, though, may have been a bit of a surprise.

I thought the Panthers would win this one, but the Dukes weren't able to compete for very long. Pitt took a 12-point lead into halftime and by the end of the game, won by 21. After a close contest for the first 12 minutes, Pitt went on a 9-0 run that saw Duquesne go scoreless for more than six minutes. That pretty much sealed the game as the Dukes couldn't get close after that.

Several Pitt players had good games on an individual level. Freshman James Robinson had another great game with nine points and seven assists (against only one turnover) and Steven Adams broke out of a funk with eight points, 14 rebounds, two blocks, and a steal. But the star was clearly Tray Woodall, who led all scorers with 24 points on 7-14 shooting.

Speaking of shooting ...

Much will be made of Pitt's final tally of hitting only 38% of their shots. But don't believe the hype - that's almost fully on the bench who put in a woeful 3-19 (16% performance). The main culprit was J.J. Moore (1-9), but no one else was able to really make an impact offensively, either. It's impossible to be hard on the reserves at this point, though. They've been really good this season and Moore, Dante Taylor, Trey Zeigler (who played, by the way), and even Durand Johnson and Cameron Wright, have been solid.

No Pitt recap would be complete without a Steven Adams assessment. The big man had his best game in a while and maybe of his young career. Even beyond the aforementioned line, he was simply more active and aggressive. The one thing I will point out, though, is that the rebounding stats should be taken with at least a small grain of salt. One one sequence, Adams repeatedly missed layups, padding his rebound total a bit. And I remember several rebounds going right to him. There was even one play where he was in position for a rebound, only to watch as James Robinson went up for it in front of him. But his play was definitely more encouraging, to say the least.

Pitt has a few days off before their next game on Saturday against North Florida.

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