The 73-68 loss Wednesday to Pitt is gone, but certainly not forgotten. It has left a lingering, sour aftertaste for Duquesne coach Ron Everhart, who must rebuild his team's bruised ego in addition to fixing some of the problems that surfaced against the Panthers.

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Scouting report

• Matchup: Duquesne (6-2) vs. West Virginia (6-1), 7 p.m. today, The Coliseum, Morgantown, W.Va.
• TV, Radio, Internet: FSN Pittsburgh, KQV (1410-AM), www.redzonemedia.com, GoDuquesne.com.
• Duquesne: Allowed an opponent to shoot better than 40 percent from the field for first time when Pitt made 41 percent in a 73-68 victory. ... Shoots 30.1 percent beyond the arc, with Kojo Mensah 6 of 24, Aaron Jackson 3-15, Phillip Fayne 3-15 and Gary Tucker 9-29. ... Leading scorers are Mensah (15.4 ppg) and Shawn James (1.4 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 42 blocks).
• West Virginia: Is coming off an 88-59 victory against Auburn in which Alex Rouff had a career-high 28 points, including 6 of 8 from beyond the arc. ... Top scorers are 6-6 Ruoff (16.7 ppg), 6-8 Joe Alexander (14.3 ppg, 7.1 rpg), 6-7 Da'Sean Butler (12.1 ppg), 6-3 Darris Nichols (10.0 ppg, 3.5 apg).
• Hidden stat: Mensah leads the Dukes with 31 assists and 29 turnovers.

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He and his staff spent a lot of time in practice this week working on the half-court offense, particularly with the unit that started the game: Kieron Achara, Shawn James, Bill Clark, Gary Tucker and Kojo Mensah.

Everhart tried to combat Pitt's physical strength by putting his two tallest players, the 6-foot-10 Achara and 6-10 James, together.

It didn't work, and the Dukes found themselves looking at a 14-0 deficit just three and a half minutes into the game.

"We haven't spent enough time with that group on the floor," said Everhart, whose Dukes (6-2) meet their second consecutive Big East opponent when they play West Virginia (6-1) at 7 p.m. today in Morgantown, W.Va.

"We didn't take advantage of our height advantage."

James came on strong to finish with 20 points, 9 rebounds and 5 blocks in his strongest overall performance of the season.

"He wanted the ball and he scored," Everhart said. "When he blocked a few shots that turned things around."

But Achara never got on track. He wasn't a factor on the boards, and he scored just nine points on 3-of-12 shooting from the floor and 3-of-6 shooting from the free-throw line. Achara, though, wasn't the only Duquesne player to struggle.

Mensah was 2 of 12 and had eight points, and Tucker and Clark had subpar games.

"We can't have too many nights when Achara, Mensah, Tucker and Clark all play poorly," Everhart said. "We had a couple guys get down on themselves mentally. It was a frustrating night all the way around."

Everhart also second-guessed his decision to scrap the two-platoon substitution pattern every two or three minutes and shorten his rotation to eight players, with James playing 38 minutes and Mensah 32.

"I never thought we could wear them down," Everhart said. "Maybe that wasn't the right way to go. Maybe we should have pressed and used all 10 of our guys. I don't know if we're going to go one way or the other every game because we're flexible enough to go either way."

The Dukes hurt their cause by making just two of their 20 shots from beyond the arc, and on a number of occasions were outhustled or bumped off the ball by the more aggressive Panthers.

"No doubt we can't let that happen," Everhart said. "We made some real unforgivable mistakes."

Everhart doesn't expect it to get any easier for his Dukes against coach Bob Huggins, in his first year at West Virginia, and his Mountaineers.

"Any team Hugs coaches he demands that his players guard you," Everhart said. "They play a half-court, man-to-man defense, much like Pitt."