Igbokwe Notches First Career Double-Double But Pitt Falls To Duke

Thursday, February 13

Pittsburgh, Pa.

6:00 PM

Pitt

4-20,1-12ACC

Duke University

14-10,8-5ACC

Duke

Pittsburgh

Photo by: Pete Madia/Pitt Athletics

Igbokwe Notches First Career Double-Double But Pitt Falls To Duke

2/13/2020 9:10:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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PITTSBURGH – Despite 32 points from a trio of freshmen on Thursday night, the University of Pittsburgh women's basketball team fell at home to the Duke Blue Devils, 73-56. Freshman forward Rita Igbokwe posted her first career double-double with 15 points and 11 boards in the loss for the Panthers.

Igbokwe led all Pitt players with a career-high 15 points while fellow freshman Amber Brown netted 11 points and nine boards. Freshman Emy Hayford made her second straight start and produced six points, seven rebounds and a career-high four assists across a career-high 33 minutes of work.

The Panthers fell behind the Blue Devils early in the first quarter as Duke jumped out to a 10-2 lead before Jahsyni Knight made a crafty reverse layup after an offensive board. The Blue Devils then responded with a couple triples and pushed their lead out to 16, 22-6, but Pitt finished the quarter strong with six straight. Emy Hayford was responsible for the first two buckets in the run as she finished off a layup and fed Amber Brown for a fast break layup before Rita Igbokwe ended the quarter with a layup to send it to the second with Pitt trailing 22-12.

The Panthers had a strong start to the second quarter as Brown finished off the first two buckets of the quarter before Igbokwe finished off a layup and free throw to cut the Duke lead to six, 25-19. The Blue Devils responded with a 7-2 run to push their lead to 32-21 at the media timeout in the second. The Panthers closed the quarter on a 7-3 run as Ismini Prapa drained a triple, Igbokwe finished off a pair of free throws and Hayford made a smooth layup to end the half. Pitt trailed the Blue Devils 38-30 through 20 minutes of action.

The Blue Devils came out strong in the third quarter to push their lead back to 16, 52-36, as they outscored the Panthers 14-6 through the first five minutes of the quarter. Igbokwe scored a bucket to end a Duke run midway through the quarter but they closed out the third on an 11-1 run to take the 59-37 lead into the final quarter.

Pitt showed some fight over the final 10 minutes of action as they were able to outscore the Blue Devils 19-14 in the final quarter. Junior Gabbie Green had a big quarter for the Panthers as she scored all nine of her points while Brown netted four points and three boards as Pitt fell at home to the talented Blue Devils 73-56.

Green finished off her night with nine second half points and a rebound while Prapa came off the bench and netted seven points and a career-high four rebounds across 17 minutes of work. Knight made her seventh start of the season and finished with two points, four assists and three boards across 22 minutes.

As a team, the Panthers were able to win the rebounding battle, 46-38, while also grabbing 23 offensive rebounds that they turned into 23 points. Pitt also won the paint scoring battle 40-26 while Duke forced 24 Pitt turnovers and turned those into 22 points.

NEXT UP

The Panthers will return to the road on Sunday afternoon as they head to Syracuse, NY to take on the Orange at 1:00 pm.

PITT NOTES
TEAM

With the loss, Pitt falls to 0-12 all-time against Duke including an 0-4 mark at home against the Blue Devils.
Pitt grabbed 46 rebounds, 23 offensive, in the loss, their 14^th game this season with at least 40 boards. The 14 games with 40+ boards is the most in a season for the Panthers since 2014-15 when they did so 19 times.

Rita Igbokwe

Finished off the best game of her college career with her first career double-double as she posted a career-high 15 points and 11 rebounds.
Went 6-for-11 from the floor and 3-for-5 from the free throw line, tying a career-high with field goals made in a game.
Her 11-rebound effort marked her second straight game grabbing double digit boards, the first time she has done that in her career.
She has now grabbed 10+ rebounds six times this season while leading Pitt in rebounding nine times.
With one block in the game, she now sits in third place on the Panthers all-time block charts for a freshman as she has a total of 46 rejections.
She finished the game playing 32 minutes off the bench, her first career game with 30+ minutes played.

Amber Brown

Finished off her night with 11 points, nine rebounds, two assists and a steal across 33 minutes of action while going 5-for-10 from the floor.
She has now scored in double figures in two straight games, marking the first time she has done that in ACC play.
The freshman has scored in double figures 13 times this season and four times in ACC play.
She has grabbed at least four rebounds in 23 of the Panthers 24 games so far this season.
Has played 20+ minutes in all 24 games while going over the 30 minute plateau a team-high 19 times this season, including in six straight.

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