NEW YORK _ A Virginia offense that spent much of the night getting in its own way broke free and all Pitt could do was watch as Isaiah Wilkins finished off a three-on-one fast break with a dunk, prompting a timeout from Panthers coach Kevin Stallings.
As Pitt's players trudged back to the bench, where they were greeted by half-hearted high fives from equally dejected teammates, reality crept in for a group that spent many of the past 24 hours believing an improbable ACC tournament run resided somewhere inside of them. They trailed by 12 with just over five minutes remaining against a more talented team with college basketball's most stifling and suffocating defense.
It was, for all intents and purposes, over and what proved to be a lost season over the course of 33 games ended the only way it could _ with a loss.
Kyle Guy and London Perrantes formed an effective and maddeningly good duo from beyond the arc, making six of their 11 3-pointers for a combined 35 points, to help buoy their Virginia team and end Pitt's 2016-17 season with a 75-63 loss Wednesday night at the Barclays Center in the second round of the ACC tournament.
The defeat guaranteed Pitt of its first losing season since 1999-2000, when Ben Howland went 13-15 in his first season at the school. When paired with Duquesne's loss Wednesday night in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 tournament, Pitt's setback gave all three Pittsburgh-area Division I men's college basketball programs a sub-.500 record in the same season for the first time since 1997-98.
As they were asked and sometimes forced to do for much of the season, senior stars Michael Young and Jamel Artis helped carry the offensive load for the Panthers, finishing with 14 and 18 points, respectively, though it was sophomore guard Cameron Johnson who led the team in scoring, with 20.
Young, with 1,835 points to his name, finishes his Pitt career as the program's seventh all-time leading scorer, just five points behind sixth-place Jason Matthews and six points behind fifth-place Don Hennon. Artis, whose scoring prowess was only a cut below Young's, finishes 11th on the all-time scoring list.
Ten different players scored for Virginia, which got 23 points from its bench compared to the zero its opponent received from its reserves. The Cavaliers led for 36:23 of the game's 40 minutes.
A Panthers (16-17) team, the No. 14 seed in the 15-team tournament, that came out aggressively the previous night in a victory against Georgia Tech was unable to replicate that kind of a start against the sixth-seeded Cavaliers (22-9). Led by two 3-pointers from Darius Thompson, who entered the night averaging 5.9 points per game, Virginia made five of its first seven 3s, helping it build a 23-12 lead.
The fight that Pitt showed Tuesday against the Yellow Jackets, the kind seen only so often this season, reappeared once the deficit hit double digits. Spurred by contributions from four different players, the Panthers went on an 11-3 run to get within three.
The momentum would only continue for so long, however, as the Cavaliers ended the half by scoring eight unanswered points to wipe out their opponent's surge. Pitt went the final 7:30 of the second half without a made field goal.
A Panthers team spearheaded by four seniors, yet again, fought back as the possibility of a loss, and the end of their college careers, loomed larger and more realistic while stifling an opponent for whom little has come easily offensively this season.
A 3 from Chris Jones _ his third in the past two games after making just nine all regular season _ cut the deficit to five and minutes later, a 3 from the top of the key from Artis got his team within a single possession, 44-41, with 13:57 remaining. On the ensuing possession, a dunk from Sheldon Jeter cut that once-disheartening gap to a single point.
Then, though, came a development that was a detrimental as it was foreseeable _ another dreaded drought diminished whatever it had previously generated. Pitt went the next 5:13 without a made field goal, a period in which Virginia increased its lead to eight. By the time Wilkins hammered home a dunk two minutes later, that deficit was up to 12.
Jones and Jeter finished with six and five points, respectively, in the final game of their college careers.
