Senior night being less of a special event is decidedly down the list of major results from relaxed transfer portal rules and frequent player movement in today’s college sports.
Before Pitt hosted Florida State on Wednesday in its final home game of the season, three seniors — Damarco Minor, Cam Corhen and Barry Dunning Jr. — were honored ahead of their last contest at Petersen Events Center.
Of the trio, Corhen is the only player to have played multiple seasons (two) in a Panthers uniform.
Aiming to provide its seniors with a memorable evening while staying on track to qualify for the upcoming ACC Tournament, Pitt came within inches of rallying from a 24-point hole, but fell 75-74.
After a Florida State turnover with 15 seconds left, Pitt got the ball back and Minor promptly hit a 3-pointer to make it a 73-71 score.
With 5.9 seconds on the clock, the Seminoles’ Robert McCray hit two free throws but Minor again 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 successfully to seal its win.
Pitt (11-19, 4-13 ACC) trailed by 16 at halftime and as much as 24 early in the second but chipped away at its deficit until, with 5:07 to play, Florida State (16-14, 9-8) clung to a five-point lead.
Though FSU’s offense dried up at a critical juncture down the stretch, so did Pitt’s, as the score of 68-63 held for nearly five minutes until Chauncey Wiggins seemingly 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 points with 10 rebounds for his second straight double-double.
Corhen contributed 14 points with six rebounds, and Nojus Indrusaitis scored 17.
Pitt shot 41.3% (26 of 63). Dunning had five of his team’s nine 3-pointers, out of 27 team attempts (33.3%).
Less than two minutes into play, Florida State was leading 6-2, with Pitt’s lone bucket coming on a mid-range jumper by Omari Witherspoon.
But Dunning soon drilled a 3-pointer to make it 6-5 at the 17:47 mark.
By the under-16 media 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 in the first half, courtesy of an AJ Swinton 3-pointer.
When Thomas Bassong blocked a shot attempt by Minor before taking the ball down the court for a fastbreak dunk, Capel called timeout, his team trailing 20-8 at the 12:54 mark.
Coming out of the break, Corhen finally delivered some offense for Pitt with a dunk. At the under-12 media timeout, the Panthers were down 20-12.
With 8:15 on the clock, a pair of McCray free throws made the score 27-17 Seminoles.
Down the stretch of the first half, Pitt trimmed its deficit to seven points but couldn’t take advantage of a few minutes of offensive stagnation by the Seminoles.
McCray and Martin Somerville then drained 3-pointers 36 seconds apart to give Florida State a 37-22 advantage with 2:39 to go before halftime.
Things didn’t get much better for Pitt before 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 final basket.
Needing a spark coming out of the locker room, Pitt instead found itself down 21 just 65 seconds into the second half as McCray hit a layup and Wiggins made FSU’s ninth 3-pointer of the evening.
Soon thereafter, the deficit was 24 after yet another Seminoles basket from downtown.
With about 16 minutes to play, Roman Siulepa stole the ball from Wiggins and rushed down the court for a layup. Though he missed, Dunning cleaned up the rebound, getting the Panthers to within 20, 58-39.
At the 13-minute mark, Pitt was showing some signs of life as buckets by Dunning and Corhen plus an Indrusaitis 3-pointer helped trim the deficit.
After another Corhen layup with 12:21 to play, Pitt had cut the Seminoles’ lead to 60-48 as FSU’s Luke Loucks called timeout with the Panthers on a 13-2 run.
Having made things interesting, the Panthers still struggled to come within nine points of Florida State over the ensuing minutes.
But with 6:08 to go, Dunning struck again from long range 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 were down 68-63 as Florida State clung to a small lead while navigating a span of nearly six minutes without any field goals.
