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Former Pitt basketball great Demetreus Gore dies at age 54 | TribLIVE.com
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Former Pitt basketball great Demetreus Gore dies at age 54

Jerry DiPaola
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Chaz Palla | Tribune-Review
Pitt’s Demetreus Gore plays against Duquesne February 4, 1985 at the Civic Arena.
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Pitt athletics
Pitt basketball standout Demetreus Gore, a four-year starter from 1984-88, finished his career with 1,555 points, 394 rebounds, 300 assists and 126 steals in 122 games (112 starts).
2966268_web1_AP343621910
AP
University of Pittsburgh players sit on their bench in the final moments of their 69-61 defeat at the hands of Villanova in Big East Tournament game at Madison Square Garden in New York, Thursday, March 8, 1985. From left are: Charles Thompson, Demetreus Gore, and Chip Watkins.
2966268_web1_gtr-DemetriusGore2-090120
Pitt athletics
Pitt basketball standout Demetreus Gore, a four-year starter from 1984-88, finished his career with 1,555 points, 394 rebounds, 300 assists and 126 steals in 122 games (112 starts).
2966268_web1_ptr-Gore01-090120
Chaz Palla | Tribune-Review
Pitt’s Demetreus Gore plays against Duquesne January 12, 1987 at the Civic Arena.

Demetreus Gore, who played on Pitt’s first Big East regular-season championship teams in 1987 and ’88, died over the weekend. He was 54.

Pitt coach Jeff Capel tweeted in tribute to Gore, “RIP to a Panther great. Another brother gone too soon!”

Gore was a four-year starter at Pitt from 1984-88, finishing 16th on the Panthers’ all-time scoring list with 1,555 points while starting all 93 games in his sophomore, junior and senior seasons. He started 97 consecutive games from February 1985, to March 1988, the sixth-longest such streak in school history.

In 122 games (112 starts), he averaged 12.7 points, with 394 rebounds. His totals of 645 field goals and 1,347 attempts rank ninth all-time in school history. He also is 10th at Pitt with a .790 free-throw percentage.

Gore reached 1,000 points in 74 games, 13th fastest all-time at Pitt.

He led Pitt in scoring as a sophomore with 466 points (16.1 per game) during the 1985-86 season, but he actually achieved his greatest fame the next two years while playing for two of the best teams in Pitt history.

During the 1986-87 and ’87-88 seasons, he was third in scoring to Charles Smith and Jerome Lane while helping Pitt win 49 of 64 games and finish 12th and eighth, respectively, in the final Associated Press polls. The ’88 team was ranked No. 2 in the nation in the midst of a 9-0 start to the season.

On Dec. 30, 1986, he put together one of the most productive 20 minutes of basketball in Pitt history when he scored 28 points in a half in a 98-82 victory against Wisconsin in the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Former Pitt coach Dr. Roy Chipman recruited Gore, who was named Michigan’s Mr. Basketball after his career at Detroit’s Chadsey High School. From 1980-86, he was the only Mr. Basketball in the state who didn’t attend Michigan or Michigan State.

Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.

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