Fields keeps Panthers unbeaten, hand Blue Devils first loss of season
It took 45 minutes for someone to leave Madison Square Garden with their first loss of the season, but Levance Fields made sure the Panthers left MSG exactly how they entered it: unbeaten.
Fields buried the game-winning three-pointer with 4.7 seconds left in overtime to lead #9 Pittsburgh past #7 Duke 65-64 in the Aeropostale Classic on Thursday night. The Panthers improved to 11-0 with the victory, while the loss puts Duke at 10-1
The win was bittersweet, as early in overtime Mike Cook injured his knee after traveling with the ball. Cook remained down on the court for several minutes and had to be helped off the court, unable to put any weight on his leg.
After Fields hit the three, Duke had chances, both coming from John Scheyer. Scheyer attempted a hurried three-pointer that was off the mark, but was able to grab his own rebound and put up one final attempt that missed as well.
The Blue Devils did not have one of their more memorable shooting nights. They shot 4-for-19 from beyond the arc (21 percent), and only connected on 14-of-26 attempts from the free throw line, good for 53.8 percent. The Blue Devil backcourt was virtually non existent all night, as Greg Paulus and Scheyer had seven points combined on 2-of-12 shooting from the field. Scheyer was 1-for-10.
Fields led the way for Pittsburgh with a game-high 21 points. He nailed all three, three-pointers for the Panthers, who didn’t have a good night from three-point range, shooting 15.8 percent on 3-of-19 shooting. Sam Young added 17 points, and freshman DeJuan Blair turned in a monster performance, netting 15 points and pulling down 20 boards. The Blue Devils were unable to find a consistent answer for Blair, as his toughness, energy and sheer force shredded the Blue Devils interior defense in the second half.
Gerald Henderson and Kyle Singler led Duke with 17 points apiece. Henderson hit the tying shot with 56 seconds to go to push the contest to overtime. The loss snaps Duke’s 36-game unbeaten streak in December, their last loss coming on December 21, 2000 against Stanford.
It was a tale of two halves for both teams, with Duke dominating the first twenty minutes. Their defense stymied Pittsburgh, creating 13 first half turnovers. The Blue Devils didn’t let the Panthers get any easy looks at the basket, forcing far away from the basket. The best job the Blue Devils was holding Blair to only five first-half points and closing out the first half on a 20-9 run. They also head Pittsburgh for nearly six minutes without a field goal.
The second half proved to be a reversal of roles. The Panthers took care of the ball, Blair was a man-beast inside and the Blue Devil backcourt never came alive. Pittsburgh outscored Duke 21-14 in first 11 minutes of the second half. Even at halftime in the rebounding department, the Panthers dropped the hammer on the Blue Devils, out-rebounding them 53-39.
Duke went close to five minutes in the second half without scoring, and went nearly seven minutes without registering a field goal. During that span, the Panthers used a 12-0 run to give them the lead, 50-49, for the first time since they were up 2-0.
Pittsburgh will now be off for the next eight days and won’t return to action until Saturday, Dec. 29th when they travel to Dayton to take on the Flyers at 8 p.m.
Tags: , Duke Blue Devils, NCAA Men's basketball, Pittsburgh Panthers