Men’s Basketball: Pitt ready for City Game

The No. 17 Pitt men’s basketball team will take its shortest road trip of the season tonight… The No. 17 Pitt men’s basketball team will take its shortest road trip of the season tonight when the Panthers travel to the Consol Energy Center to take on the Duquesne Dukes in the annual City Game.

Tonight’s matchup is the 80th meeting between the two Pittsburgh schools, and this year’s athletes are more than familiar with each other.

The Panthers (5-1) and Dukes (4-2) play with and against each other in the Pittsburgh Pro-Am Summer League and play pick-up basketball together, and some players competed against each other in high school and AAU basketball.

“We have some fun during the summertime,” Pitt senior forward Nasir Robinson said. “This time it gets serious. We’re friends with those guys, but when we get on the court it’s different. It means a lot to them, and it means a lot to us.”

Pitt won last year’s game — the first City Game in the Consol Energy Center — 80-66. Pitt will look to win its 11th straight game against Duquesne tonight. Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said he’s excited that the game will continue to be played on the Consol Energy Center floor.

“It’s a great facility,” Dixon said. “It’s great for Pittsburgh, so I think it’s great for us to play and be a part of it. It’s for all the right reasons. They want to play college basketball games there, and obviously we should be a part of that. We’re fortunate to be playing down there.”

Duquesne is a guard-oriented team that will look to beat the Panthers on the perimeter. Pitt junior point guard Tray Woodall said he knows that the Dukes’ shooting ability will stretch Pitt’s defense, making rebounding especially important for the Panthers.

“[Duquesne’s ability to shoot is] going to stretch us out,” Woodall said. “Our big guys are going to have to come out on the perimeter because they have four men who play on the perimeter. They’ll pull our big men out, and it’s going to be a lot of long rebounds. Our guards are going to have to go in there and rebound.”

Duquesne is being out-rebounded by 10 boards a game this season, while Pitt holds an 8.8 rebound advantage over its opponents.

The Panthers also have a big height advantage over their crosstown rival and will look to the post for production.

“We outsize them by a lot,” Robinson said. “We do a good job rebounding, and we have to take an advantage of them inside because they have a small team.”

Four Duquesne starters are averaging double figures. Junior guard Sean Johnson leads the Dukes with 16.5 points per game. Guard/forward B.J. Monteiro follows with 15.2 points per game, while guards Eric Evans and T.J. McConnell add 11.8 and 11.5 points per game, respectively.

The Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year last season, McConnell also grabs a team-high five rebounds a game and dishes out 6.2 assists.

The Panthers are coming off an 81-71 victory over Robert Morris, another Pittsburgh-area team. Pitt’s bench shined in the victory with Cameron Wright, John Johnson and Talib Zanna combining for 29 of the Panthers’ 81 points.

Zanna also added 10 rebounds. Although leading scorer Ashton Gibbs scored a team-high 21 points, he struggled from the floor, shooting 6-17. Gibbs’ backcourt mate Tray Woodall finished with a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists.

The Panthers will look for a similarly balanced performance against the Dukes as they try to win the second City Game at the Consol Energy Center.

Robinson said he enjoys the atmosphere at Consol, especially for the City Game. The Panthers hope to get to play Downtown when the arena hosts first- and second-round games of the NCAA Tournament this March.

“I know we’re going to have a lot of fans there,” Robinson said. “The atmosphere is nice. They’ll have a lot of fans there. It’s like our second home.”