No. 6 Duke 93, Pittsburgh 55

No. 6 Duke 93, Pittsburgh 55

Published Nov. 25, 2010 2:51 a.m. ET

For about a quarter of the game Wednesday night, Pittsburgh hung with No. 6 Duke.

As soon as the teams began to turn to their non-starters, however, the Blue Devils took over.

Jasmine Thomas had 16 points and Duke got 44 points from its bench, pulling away from Pittsburgh in the second half for a 93-55 win.

Shay Selby had a career-high 15 points for Duke (5-0), which had six players score at least 10 points.

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''In this particular game, a lot of different people played their role and played it well,'' Blue Devils coach Joanne McCallie said. ''I think we wore them out a little bit tonight, and our depth showed.''

The Blue Devils went on a 14-2 run beginning with 10:33 to play in the first half and never led by less than seven the remainder of the contest. They routed Pitt 50-21 in the second half, closing the game on a 20-2 run over the final 7:38.

The Panthers (2-2) held a lead midway through the first half and shot 60 percent before halftime but made only four of their first 16 shots in the second half, shooting 8-for-22 in the second half in all.

''They have a really nice team worthy of their ranking,'' Pitt coach Agnus Berenato said. ''There's a reason why they were in the Elite Eight last year, and they continue to get better. They're big, they're strong, they're athletic, they're quick. I thought our first half, we did a really great job, but in the second half, they forced us into lots of turnovers and then we lost our confidence and turned the ball over even more.''

Thomas had nine of her points by halftime and played only 11 minutes in the second half.

Taneisha Harrison led the Panthers with 16 points. Brittany Thomas added 12 points and Shayla Scott 10.

Reserve Haley Peters had 12 points, Krystal Thomas 11 and Karima Christmas and Kathleen Scheer 10 each for Duke, which held a 40-23 advantage in rebounds.

Duke shot 51 percent from the field, the third consecutive game they shot better than 50 percent. The Blue Devils had 16 steals, their fourth consecutive game with at least 12 and a record for an opponent at the Petersen Events Center.

''I thought (Selby) just kind of really ignited them in the second half,'' Berenato said. ''They just shared the ball overall well, but I thought they were sharing off our turnovers. It was a a gift. They were quicker to the ball and quicker to the draw.''

With a roster entirely comprised of seniors and freshmen and an all-senior starting lineup and all-freshman bench, Pittsburgh was outscored in bench points 44-2. Duke has scored at least 30 bench points in each of its past four games.

''It was just a great team game in terms of attack and everyone being a part of it,'' McCallie said.

It was Pitt's worst loss since a 98-56 defeat to No. 1 Connecticut last season. Berenato, a former coach at Georgia Tech, has lost 34 consecutive games against Duke.

Selby, a junior, missed the first two games of the season due to injury and scored only three points in a combined 31 minutes in the next two contests. She played 23 minutes Wednesday, shooting 6-for-9, making all three of her 3-point attempts and adding four steals.

''My confidence is coming up,'' Selby said. ''Hopefully I can bring that onto the next game and not just focus on offense but my defense, too.''

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