Duke Basketball: Blue Devils roll Pittsburgh as Zion Williamson dominates

The Duke Basketball team flexed its muscles against Pittsburgh on Tuesday night as the Blue Devils rolled to an easy road victory.

The Blue Devils were once again without Tre Jones as he is still recovering from his shoulder injury, but he was not needed in Duke’s thrashing of Pittsburgh on the road.

Duke cruised to a 79-64 victory as Mike Krzyzewski won his first game coaching against his former player and assistant coach Jeff Capel, in his first season with Pittsburgh.

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With Jay-Z in attendance at the Petersen Events Center, Zion Williamson led the way for the Blue Devils making his first ten field goal attempts, and finishing with 25 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, two steals, and a block. Williamson’s only misses of the night came from 3-point range as he finished by shooting 11-of-13 from the field, and one of three from 3-point range. 19 of Williamson’s 25 points came in the first half.

R.J. Barrett also went over 20 points once again as he finished with 26 points, five rebounds, three assists, and two steals. The Canadian freshman led the Blue Devils in shot attempts with 24, making 10 of them and going three of seven from 3-point range.

It was the tenth time this season that both R.J. Barrett and Zion Williamson have scored at least 20 points in a game this season.

Cam Reddish began to find his stroke in the second half, as he finished with 15 points, six rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Reddish only made four of his sixteen shots, with three of ten coming from 3-point territory.

Although it did not show offensively, Marques Bolden had an excellent game for Duke tonight, finishing with just seven points, but grabbing nine rebounds and blocking four shots.

As the second half progressed and Duke was winning by more than 20 points, the Blue Devils became very sloppy and allowed Pitt to creep every so slightly back into the game, as the Duke lead was cut to 15.

On the night, Duke began to improve from the free throw line, making 16-of-20 attempts, which put the Blue Devils at a 80% for the night, however, Duke continued to struggled from 3-point range, making just seven of twenty-three  attempts for 30.4%.

The victory moved the No. 2 Blue Devils to 16-2 on the season and 5-1 in the ACC while Pittsburgh dropped to 12-7 overall and 2-4 in the ACC.

The Panthers travel to Kentucky to face the No. 23 Louisville Cardinals on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 pm ET on the ACC Network.

As for the Blue Devils, the team returns to Durham to host the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Saturday at 12:00 pm ET at Cameron Indoor Stadium and the game can be seen on the ACC Network.