Duke Blue Devils vs Pitt Panthers Preview

“It’s what I told our team”, Cutcliffe said.

“They ran for under 100 yards in the first half and they ran for 178 and we rushed for minus two in the second half”.

Saturday night the Blue Devils are going to face the Bryant Bulldogs at 8 PM EST.

But, after halftime, everything flipped toward Pitt (7-3, 5-1).

No. 23 Purdue 81, North Carolina A&T 40: WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Kendall Stephens (14 points) and Ryan Cline (13 points) each made four 3-pointers to lead Purdue.

Duke lost 76 percent of its scoring and 68 percent of its rebounding from that team, which was carried by three freshmen-turned-first-round picks – most notably 6-foot-11 Jahlil Okafor, now of the Philadelphia 76ers.

“We got outblocked, outtackled, outhit”, explained Cutcliffe. “That being said we have to go in there and try and compete 4 minutes at a time”.

Duke senior co-captain Jeremy Cash would admit, he got a bit misty eyed taking the field for the final time at Wallace-Wade Stadium.

The Blue Devils feature a trio of talented freshman, including Preseason ACC Freshman of the Year Brandon Ingram, this season.

“I’ve always had pretty big hands”, Allen said. “That’s just very uncharacteristic of us and we need to do better as we move forward in this two-game season that we have left”.

Pitt wide receiver Dontez Ford (19) reels in a touchdown pass in the third quarter over Duke cornerback Jeremy McDuffie (9).

Pittsburgh Panthers scored 26.1 points compared to allowed 22.1 points with point differential of 4.0.

While he practiced all week while Sirk was healing, Boehme didn’t learn of his starting assignment until Saturday morning.

“We’ll see if they want to fight for a win or are they content to just not get embarrassed and represent well and play well”. We’ve got to be tough with the ball.

Duke was 6-1 overall and 3-0 in the Coastal last month and considered the frontrunner in the division race.

Boehme appeared to get in a rhythm on the next drive, though, and found Anthony Nash for a 52-yard pass on 3rd-and-15. Chris Blewitt countered by kicking a 51-yarder with 43 seconds before the break.

Perhaps his loudest cheer, though, came in the second half.

Pitt quarterback Nate Peterman threw three touchdowns passes, two in the second half.

That drive was aided by a pair of Duke penalties on third-down plays.

With flair, he held the follow on his first 3-pointer as it circled around and around the rim before dropping, as Allen snapped his wrist and pulled in his thumb and index finger, extending the other three wide in the air. Boehme was the driving force behind the Blue Devils’ success on the scoring drive in accounting for 72 of the 79 yards during the nine-play drive, including the 1-yard plunge into the end zone.

Both resulted, instead, in Pitt first downs.

With that, Duke was done.

This one didn’t have the 206 combined points that the past two meetings between the two schools featured, but Pitt (7-3, 5-1 ACC) did what it had to do to come out with a much needed win.

“We still have to learn from winning”, Allen said, “so we don’t have to lose just to learn”. “I’ve been part of teams that would love to be a 6-4 team. We’re not defending, because we don’t have anywhere close to the same team”.