PITTSBURGH — Playing the No. 16 team in the country, and what very well might be the best squad in the ACC, is seldom the solution for snapping a team out of a skid that has seen it lose six of its past seven games. And having to do so without arguably the team’s best two-way player? Well, that complicates matters that much more.
For Pitt Saturday against Florida State, it was a combination of factors that ended with an unsurprising conclusion.
Justin Champagnie had a team-high 21 points and 10 rebounds, his 11th double-double of the season, but a balanced scoring effort from the Seminoles, in addition to all of their other inherent advantages, was too much to overcome in a 79-72 loss for the Panthers.
Pitt’s most recent setback, its seventh defeat in its past eight games, drops it to .500 not even a full month after it was 8-2.
“They wore us down,” Panthers coach Jeff Capel said. “That’s what they do. That’s what Florida State does. They come at you in waves. They have these big, huge, athletic guys they just keep sending in. Their style of play, with the way they pressure the ball constantly, take passes away, they’re very, very physical. I thought they wore us down.”
Earning the start in place of an injured Au’Diese Toney, senior guard Nike Sibande scored 12 points and had seven rebounds, putting together his best game since transferring from Miami (Ohio) over the summer. Guard Xavier Johnson also finished in double figures, scoring 15, 14 of which came in the second half.
Nine of Florida State’s 10 players who saw the court Saturday scored, and five had at least eight points. That depth proved to be critical. The Seminoles’ bench outscored the Panthers’ by a 33-9 margin.
The Panthers were stymied offensively by their inability to finish close to the basket against a long, athletic opponent. They made just 15 of their 29 layups, the kind of close misses that could have changed the game’s outlook, if not its final result.
“If you make half of those, that’s eight points,” Capel said. “Maybe the outcome’s a little bit different.”
Pitt fell behind by 10, 20-10, in the game’s opening 10 minutes, setting the stage for a potential blowout, especially given the circumstances. The Panthers (9-9, 5-7 ACC) fought back, though, getting within a point not even three minutes later.
Still, Florida State maintained control, never giving up the lead or allowing Pitt to get closer than three points in the second half. In only one of the three instances in which the Panthers were within three did they not give up points on the other end. On that occasion, Sibande missed a jumper and the Seminoles’ RaiQuan Gray responded with a pair of free throws.
It was the last time Pitt would ever get that close. With its lead down to four after a Champagnie layup, Florida State went on an 8-2 run, with six of those points coming from freshman standout Scottie Barnes, to push its lead to 10 with 9:21 left to play, prompting a timeout from Capel.
Pitt is scheduled to have the next seven days off before its Feb. 28 game at N.C. State, though there’s a possibility a game could be added to that void. Capel said the extent to which he pursues a matchup in that time will depend on the health of his team, with Toney recovering from a concussion and freshman guard Femi Odukale nursing a calf strain.
Until then, the Panthers will have time to make sense of their most recent loss, a result that wasn’t a moral victory, but was something that provided some hope that maybe things aren’t quite as bad as they may seem.
“Everybody in the locker room knew we could compete in that game,” Sibande said. “We knew we were supposed to be there. We knew there was a good chance of us winning. Everybody was upset. But I feel like all we’ve got to do is stay together and just keep pushing and fighting together. As long as we don’t give up, we’ll have bright days ahead.”
