Article by David Vorp
With the ongoing NHL lockout, it has been a while since theConsol Energy Center was used for a sporting event, unfortunately, but it served the 81st edition of The City Game between the Pitt Panthers and Duquesne Dukes quite well. Even Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma – who has nothing better to do – was in attendance to take in this Pittsburgh tradition (wearing Pitt blue and gold, incidentally). The City Game, which both unites and divides the city, has now been won by the Panthers 50 times, including 12 in a row – the longest winning streak by either team in the history of the series.
The first half was relatively sloppy offensively, with both teams struggling with a FG percentage under 28%. Duquesne kept it close early on, with the game being tied 15-15 with 8:12 left in the first half, but Pitt pulled away from there, largely behind the hot hand of Tray Woodall. Woodall, a senior, was the only player from either team that scored more than 6 points in the half, putting up 14. Freshman 7-footer Steven Adams dominated the boards with his trademark aggressive style, and finished the half with the unusual box score entry of 11 rebounds with only 2 points. After leading 29-17 at the half, the Panthers made some adjustments against the Dukes’ somewhat-effective ball screen to finish strong, winning the game 66-45. Woodall led with a game-high 24 points and 31 minutes of court time. After scoring the game’s first points with a rainbow three pointer, which got the Dukes crowd going early on, Sean Johnson led the Dukes with 13 points. Adams led both teams with a season-high 14 rebounds, and finished the game with 8 points.
After the game, Woodall, playing in his final City Game,expressed his appreciation to the city for making it such a memorable event each year.
“This game is always special, with a little bit of trash talking going on. I am glad that I was able to finish out my time here with another win”, he said.
The Dukes’Quevyn Winters, a true freshman playing his in his first City Game marveled at the atmosphere.
“It was crazy; I didn’t know that it was this serious”, he said
This sentiment was echoed by his coach, also experiencing his first City Game. When asked about the possible changes with Pitt moving to the ACC next year, and the basketball version of the Backyard Brawl being suspended indefinitely, Dukes Coach Jim Ferry offered the following.
“This game has to be played. As long as I am here, I will do what I can to make sure that it is played,” Ferry said.
His counterpart, Panthers Coach Jamie Dixon agreed.
“Middle of the week games in November or December don’t typically draw 13,000 in attendance. Clearly this is an important game to the City of Pittsburgh.”
Turning his attention to his observations from the game, Coach Dixon took away some thoughts in terms of need for improvement for his team.
“We missed a lot of layups today, especially in the first half”, he said. “It is not often that a team shoots less than 30 percent from inside and 50% from three point range. We made some adjustments at half-time to handle the ball screen that they were throwing at us in the first half.”
Coach Dixon was guarded in his praise, but still complimentary to clearly the best player on the court tonight.
“Tray has really improved in his shot selection. That is the big difference this year. This was really evident in the second half, when I thought his patience was good.”
Coach Ferry was very complimentary of the Panthers overall, but particularly Woodall.
“Being a New Yorker, I have seen Tray since he was a little kid. He is special, and he showed that tonight.”
When asked about Adams, and his rebounding butinability to put offensive rebounds into the hoop, Coach Dixon said “He will get better, and has gotten better. His finish is where he needs to improve”.
The Panthers improved to 8-1 while the Dukes dropped to 4-4. As with every City Game, the final score results in a sub-population of Pittsburgh that is happy and a sub-population that is not happy. Tonight, the Panthers fans retained the bragging rights as Pitt keeps The City Game trophy, and it was the Dukes fans that were unhappy. However, one silver lining for theDuquesne faithful was that the mascot dance-off during a timeout in the second half was decidedly won by The Duke over the Panther. If they only made a trophy for that…
