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Pittsburgh holds off Duquesne

Dec 1, 2011 - 3:18 AM Pittsburgh, PA (Sports Network) - Ashton Gibbs drained four three-pointers and finished with 18 points, leading No. 17 Pittsburgh to an 80-69 victory over crosstown rival Duquesne in the 80th edition of the City Game Rivalry at Consol Energy Center.

Dante Taylor had 15 points -- on a perfect 6-of-6 from the floor -- and 11 rebounds for the Panthers (6-1), who have won four in a row. Lamar Patterson netted 10 points.

Tray Woodall and John Johnson each had nine points for the victors. Woodall also had seven assists.

Sean Johnson paced the Dukes (4-3) with 19 points. T.J. McConnell added 15 points to go with four steals and B.J. Monteiro tallied nine points and five rebounds.

The game remained close for the first 10-plus minutes of the first half, with Pitt leading by as many as seven, and the Dukes leading by as many as five, but Pitt began to pull away before the break.

A pair of free throws by Patterson gave the Panthers a 19-12 lead, and a jumper by Gibbs with just under six minutes to go put Pitt up 28-18.

A three-pointer by Patterson with over four minutes to play gave the Panthers a 10-point lead, 33-23, and they closed out the opening 20 minutes holding a 38-27 edge.

In the second half, Duquesne used an 8-2 spurt to get it to a five-point game just over two minutes in, but Gibbs responded with the next five points for Pitt to push the lead back to 10.

The Dukes refused to go quietly and whittled the lead down to four with just under 13 minutes to play, but the Panthers again responded with the next five points to make it 55-46.

A layup and free throw by Nasir Robinson gave the Panthers their largest lead of the night at 13, 70-57 with just under four minutes to play and they held off the Dukes the rest of the way to earn the victory.

Both teams shot well from the floor but Pitt shot 52 percent from beyond the arc to only 35 percent from three-point land for the Dukes.

The Panthers were sloppy with the ball -- committing 23 turnovers -- but made up for it by dominating on the glass. They outrebounded Duquesne 39-15 and poured in 18 second-chance points.

Game Notes

Pittsburgh owns a 49-31 series advantage over Duquesne, and the Panthers have won the last 11 meetings...Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon is 9-0 against Duquesne and 102-8 against non-conference opponents...Duquesne struggled from the charity stripe, shooting 62 percent from the stripe.