Senior night being much less of a particular occasion is decidedly down the listing of main outcomes from relaxed switch portal guidelines and frequent participant motion in as we speak’s school sports activities.
Before Pitt hosted Florida State on Wednesday in its closing house recreation of the season, three seniors — Damarco Minor, Cam Corhen and Barry Dunning Jr. — had been honored forward of their final contest at Petersen Events Center.
Of the trio, Corhen is the one participant to have performed a number of seasons (two) in a Panthers uniform.
Aiming to offer his seniors with a memorable night whereas staying on monitor to qualify for the upcoming ACC Tournament, Pitt got here inside inches of rallying from a 24-point gap, however fell 75-74.
After a Florida State turnover with 15 seconds left, Pitt obtained the ball again and Minor promptly hit a 3-pointer to make it a 73-71 rating.
With 5.9 seconds on the clock, the Seminoles’ Robert McCray hit two free throws however Minor once more hit a 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds left, making it a 75-74 FSU lead.
However, after that, the Panthers’ magic ran out and Florida State inbounded the ball efficiently to sign its win.
Pitt (11-19, 4-13 ACC) trailed by 16 at halftime and as many as 24 early within the second however chipped away at its deficit till, with 5:07 to play, Florida State (16-14, 9-8) clung to a five-point lead.
Although FSU’s offense dried up at a important juncture down the stretch, so did Pitt’s, as the rating of 68-63 held for practically 5 minutes till Chauncey Wiggins apparently hit the dagger for the Seminoles, a 3-pointer with 52 seconds left.
The loss spoiled the heroics of Dunning, who dropped a season-high 26 factors with 10 rebounds for his second straight double-double.
Corhen contributed 14 factors with six rebounds, and Nojus Indrusaitis scored 17.
Pitt shot 41.3% (26 of 63). Dunning had 5 of his crew’s 9 3-pointers, out of 27 crew makes an attempt (33.3%).
Less than two minutes into play, Florida State was main 6-2, with Pitt’s lone bucket coming on a mid-range jumper by Omari Witherspoon.
But Dunning quickly drilled a 3-pointer to make it 6-5 on the 17:47 mark.
By the under-16 half timeout, the Seminoles had gone up 13-7 as Wiggins hit a shot from downtown, capitalizing on a Corhen turnover.
Florida State took a double-digit lead of 18-8 with 14:06 remaining within the first half, courtesy of an AJ Swinton 3-pointer.
When Thomas Bassong blocked a shot try by Minor earlier than taking the ball down the court docket for a fastbreak dunk, Capel known as timeout, his crew trailing 20-8 on the 12:54 mark.
Coming out of the break, Corhen lastly delivered some offense for Pitt with a dunk. At the under-12 half timeout, the Panthers had been down 20-12.
With 8:15 on the clock, a pair of McCray free throws made the rating 27-17 Seminoles.
Down the stretch of the primary half, Pitt trimmed his deficit to seven factors however could not make the most of a couple of minutes of offensive stagnation by the Seminoles.
McCray and Martin Somerville then drained 3-pointers 36 seconds aside to provide Florida State a 37-22 benefit with 2:39 to go earlier than halftime.
Things did not get a lot better for Pitt earlier than the break, and after 20 minutes of play the Seminoles led 46-30 with Cam Miles sinking a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for the half’s closing basket.
Needing a spark popping out of the locker room, Pitt as a substitute discovered himself down 21 just 65 seconds into the second half as McCray hit a layup and Wiggins made FSU’s ninth 3-pointer of the night.
Soon thereafter, the deficit was 24 after one more Seminoles basket from downtown.
With about 16 minutes to play, Roman Siulepa stole the ball from Wiggins and rushed down the court docket for a layup. Although he missed, Dunning cleaned up the rebound, getting the Panthers to inside 20, 58-39.
At the 13-minute mark, Pitt was exhibiting some indicators of life as buckets by Dunning and Corhen plus an Indrusaitis 3-pointer helped trim the deficit.
After one other Corhen layup with 12:21 to play, Pitt had lower the Seminoles’ result in 60-48 as FSU’s Luke Loucks known as timeout with the Panthers on a 13-2 run.
Having made fascinating issues, the Panthers nonetheless struggled to return inside 9 factors of Florida State over the taking minutes.
But with 6:08 to go, Dunning struck once more from lengthy vary and the Seminoles’ lead was trimmed to 67-61.
A pair of Corhen free throws with 5:19 to play made it 67-63.
With 3:27 to go, the Panthers had been down 68-63 as Florida State clung to a small lead whereas navigating a span of practically six minutes with none discipline targets.
