PITTSBURGH — Pitt coach Jeff Capel played at Duke, coached at Duke and was fully immersed with everything in the Duke basketball program.

Capel also believed he knew what to expect from Duke on Tuesday at the Petersen Events Center.

“They’ll be loaded for bear,” the Panthers coach said.

Not quite. While the No. 4 Blue Devils wanted to quickly put a last-second loss to North Carolina behind them, move on to the next thing and next game, the Panthers made them work for a 70-54 victory.

On a night when freshman Cameron Boozer was only average — the ACC’s leading scorer had 17 points plus 10 rebounds — the Blue Devils (22-2, 11-1 ACC) got 21 points from Isaiah Evans and 14 from Caleb Foster.

The Blue Devils had a different look to the starting lineup with center Patrick Ngongba II ruled out of the game with an injury, Ngongba was replaced by Maliq Brown, and his availability for Saturday’s game against No. 20 Clemson was not immediately known.

It was a grind. The Blue Devils were not overly sharp on either end of the floor, at times caught flat footed on defense and making some sloppy plays and turnovers in their halfcourt offense.

Capel’s eighth season as head coach has been a continuing struggle. The Panthers fell to 9-6 overall and 2-10 in the ACC, although there was a lively crowd on hand Tuesday.

Pitt stayed close with 3-pointers, hitting seven in the first half. That also kept the crowd in the game.

When the Panthers took an early 9-4 lead, Duke coach Jon Scheyer quickly ordered up a timeout. It was evident the Blue Devils had not come into the building “loaded for bear.”

A mini-spurt late in the first half enabled the Devils to go to the locker room with a 35-29 lead. Another enabled them to move to a 40-29 lead early in the second half, a 3-pointer by Boozer having Capel calling for a time.

The Blue Devils stayed comfortably ahead the rest of the way, although the Panthers got an inspired game from Roman Siulepa, a 6-6 freshman from Australia. Matched up against Boozer a lot, Siulepa hits 3s and muscled inside in finishing with 19 points.

Duke outrebounded the Panthers 37-23 and had 36 points in the paint to Pitt’s 22.

Playing without Ngongba

The Devils played much of the UNC game without Ngongba and did not have the 6-11 sophomore available Tuesday.

Ngongba was limited to 16 minutes against UNC because of foul problems and also injured his left hand during the game, a Duke spokesman said. He made the trip with the team to Pittsburgh but was held out of the game, a wrist support wrap on his left hand.

Scheyer said Monday that he probably did not play freshman Nik Khamenia enough in the UNC game — the 6-9 forward had just four minutes of playing time. But with Ngongba out, Khamenia was needed Tuesday and got a longer look.

On one first-half play, Khamenia missed a 3 from the corner, raced in to grab the long rebound, missed another shot, rebounded again and scored on a layup — two offensive rebounds and two points because of the hustle.

Sophomore guard Darren Harris, who did not play against UNC, also was in the rotation Tuesday. Harris hit a 3-pointer late in the first half, started the second and gave the Devils some productive minutes.

Pitt stayed close with 3s

Capel talked earlier this week about his team’s shooting woes of late. It also hurt the Panthers that their leading scorer, sophomore guard Brandin Cummings, would miss Tuesday’s game with an ankle injury.

Shooting woes? Roman Siulepa, a 6-8, 220-pounder from Australia, knocked down three 3s in the first half. So did Barry Dunning Jr., a 6-6 senior, as the Panthers kept it close in the first 20 minutes with 7-for-20 shooting on 3s.

While the Devils were grinding away in their half-court offense, the Panthers’ approach seemed to be to milk the shot clock and let loose with a 3-pointer. Siulepa was shooting 30% and Dunning 31% on 3s for the season but both were 3 of 6 in the opening half.

It was reminiscent of Louisville’s Aly Khalifa surprisingly going 5 for 5 in the game in Louisville. But Siulepa and Dunning sustain it as Pitt missed eight of its first nine shots from 3-point distance to start the second half.

No real flow to game

Neither team ever found a good rhythm. Duke had some ugly turnovers. But so did Pitt.

In the second half, Boozer was double-teamed near the right corner. The big man often has been able to spot and hit the open man, but hurled a wild pass out of bounds.

The Panthers had their share. Not long after Boozer sent his pass sailing towards the stands, Pitt’s Nojus Indrusaitis tried a lob pass that sailed well out of bounds.

Another late re-do

It happened again to Duke.

With the first half about to end Tuesday, Pitt’s Damarco Minor airballed a shot. The clock ran out and the two teams quickly headed to their locker rooms.

Except …

The referees conferred and determined there was 0.6 second remaining. The teams came back on the floor and Duke was unable to make anything of it.

At UNC, there was 0.4 second remaining after Seth Trimble’s 3-pointer. And a court storming, And then another.

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