This was a game Pitt simply had to get, following a defeat to lowly Florida State on Saturday.
The Panthers chose to give Wake Forest a dose of the medicine they took from the Seminoles, and in doing so, they did not only kept their NCAA Tournament hopes thriving for another game; they found perhaps another gear that they had searched for in moments this season.
Pitt's 81-79 holding off of the Demon Deacons at the Petersen Events Center was brought by, as Blake Hinson coined after the game, "a caravan of guys" who found ways to fit in different ways than we are used to seeing.
It was Hinson's eight 3-pointers and Greg Elliott's six that paced a record-setting effort for Pitt, but it was the coaching and movement of pieces throughout and a constant challenging and countering of Wake Forest that helped Jeff Capel's group hold off a last-second effort from the Demon Deacons.
"This team don't got no back seat," Hinson said. "It's a whole caravan worth of good guys happy to go along on this ride, and we're going to ride it. There isn't no back seat. We don't see no back seat. Everybody's on the car ride having a good road trip. ... Ain't no front seat, ain't no back seat. Just the driver, and we're all in there."
That "caravan" did a masterful job at defending a last-second 3-pointer from Wake Forest's Tyree Appleby, who had to drive to his left and hoist up the shot from the wing. It clanked off of the backboard above and left of the square and bounced off the front of the rim as time expired.
As Capel illustrated after the game, that was by design, even though the usage of advanced analytics is still "very new" for him.
"We knew as a staff looking at analytics Appleby is not as efficient going left," Capel said, "and, so, we were able to get him going to his left and to force a tough shot. He is an outstanding player, and he makes big-time shots. We were fortunate that he didn't make that one.
"We knew that 85 percent of his offense was him going right. That's something we talked to our team about as we started to go over our preparation for Wake Forest on Monday. There are little reminders throughout the game. We didn't do a great job all game, but on that last possession we did a really good job of it."
(Call them "Capelytics," if you will. Just credit me with the phrase, please.)
Smarter coaching leads to smarter play. When Pitt needed a stop, as it often was unable to get in past moments this season, it got one when its season was virtually on the line.
Entering Wednesday, Pitt (14-7, 7-3 ACC) checked into the NCAA NET rankings at 64th, while Wake Forest (14-7, 6-4) was 71st. This win qualifies as a "Quadrant 2" victory for the Panthers, moving them to 3-4 in such games and rectifying the loss to Quadrant 4 Florida State on Saturday. Pitt had to have this one on Wednesday as to not fall off the "bubble." A loss would have likely placed Pitt on the outside looking in with games against No. 20 Miami and at North Carolina on the horizon, which could have put the Panthers in a sour spot as the calendar flips to February.
For an NCAA Tournament team, the ability to bounce back and the ability to win close games have to be shown in instances. Four of the last five games inside the Petersen Events Center have been decided by one possession and a total of eight points, excluding the loss to Florida State. Pitt is 3-1 in those four games -- against North Carolina, Virginia, Clemson, and Wake Forest.
Two of those wins came against ranked teams, and each of those four were against either a Quadrant 1 or 2 team. That weighs in huge on Selection Sunday.
"I'm really proud of my team because that's a very good basketball team that we beat," Capel said.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Pitt set a program record with its 18 made 3-pointers on Wednesday. The previous record was the 16 made 3s against Notre Dame in 1997. Hinson splashed 8 of 14 from distance, while Elliott made 6 of 9, Nelly Cummings 3 of 7, and Nike Sibande 1 of 5. Hinson and Elliott's 42 points off of 3-pointers accounted for 51.9% of Pitt's points on Wednesday.
Over his last three games, Elliott has made 13 of 23 3-pointers. In the six games prior to that, Elliott had made 8 of 32 from 3.
"It's something, actually, me and Blake talk about a lot, is setting the fire alarms off in here, and it finally came into fruition today," Elliott said. "We talk about it all the time. To finally see it come true, it was big time, and I'm happy we did it with a win."
• Speaking of Cummings, he broke through some of his offensive struggles. He had made 3 of his last 20 (15 percent) from the field over his last two games, and 6 of 33 3-pointers (18.2 percent) over his last seven entering Wednesday. While he did not catch the gym on fire like Hinson and Elliott did, he made 4 of 11 overall with his 3 of 7 from beyond the arc. He added six assists while turning the ball over twice, marking his best game as a distributor since his eight assists against Virginia on Jan. 3.
• It helped that Hinson and Elliott knocked down a combined 60.1 percent of their 3-pointers, but Pitt's offense as a whole was a mirror from Saturday. Jamarius Burton shelled away nine assists (while scoring just six points) to pace Pitt's 22 assists as a team on 28 converted field goals. That assist total ties a team-high for the season, which it also achieved Nov. 28 at Northwestern.
"I thought we were very good offensively," Capel said. "I thought the ball had energy. I thought we learned from the last game, as far as, we moved the basketball. We didn't settle. To have 22 assists on 28 made field goals is big time, and obviously to be able to hit 18 3s. I thought we were able to do that because the ball had energy, and these two guys beside me (Hinson and Elliott) combined for 14 of them."
• After the Panthers' bench was outscored 17-4 on Saturday, it evened with the Demon Deacons' bench at 20 apiece on Wednesday. Sibande was one of four Panthers overall in double figures with 11 points, while Guillermo Diaz Graham added five points and Nate Santos and Jorge Diaz Graham each chased with two.
"We need those guys, and we need their energy," Capel said. "It necessarily may not mean scoring, but I thought they did some good things defensively. Obviously they all scored. I thought Jorge came out, gave us some really good minutes, took a big-time charge. We need everyone. We need everyone to come in and give great energy when they're in the game, and those guys from the bench did that."
• We talked earlier in the week about Federiko Federiko's offensive game coming along, and while he did plaster in a key dunk towards the end of the game, that was his only bucket of the night.
Once again, however, Federiko was extremely impactful otherwise. He grabbed a game-high nine rebounds and had two assists, a block, and a steal, and was a game-high plus-8.
"Fede's not a scorer yet," Capel said. "That's not where he is with his game. He's not a guy that we're going to throw the ball to and put his back to the basket. Fede's in the dunker spot. Lobs, plays off penetration, and if they switch then maybe we can get it to him then, or offensive rebounds. He does a really good job defending, he does a really good job of ball-screen defense, and he's a presence around the basket where he can cause some difficult shots or try to finish over him. He was really, really good for us."
• Wednesday marked 35 years to the date of former Pitt All-American Jerome Lane's backboard-shattering dunk against Providence on Jan. 25, 1988. The Pete hosted "Send it in, Jerome!" night as Lane was on-hand for an autograph and meet-and-greet session with fans, and he was recognized on the floor for his feat.
Corey Crisan / DKPS
Jerome Lane signs an autograph before Wednesday's game at the Petersen Events Center.
• Steelers quarterback and former Pitt Heisman Trophy finalist Kenny Pickett was in the house, and he received a rowdy ovation and the patented "KEN-NY! KEN-NY!" chants from the crowd during one of the media timeouts. Pickett was in attendance alongside former Pitt teammate Jim Medure and current Steelers teammates Mason Cole and Anthony Miller:
THE 5s
• Wake Forest: G Tyree Appleby, G Cameron Hildreth, G Damari Monsanto, F Andrew Carr, C Matthew Marsh.
• Pitt: G Nelly Cummings, G Greg Elliott, F Jamarius Burton, F Blake Hinson, C Federiko Federiko.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE INJURIES
• Out for the season: F Will Jeffress (foot), F John Hugley IV (personal).
THE SCHEDULE
• The Panthers wrap their homestand with a 4 p.m. game against No. 20 Miami on Saturday at The Pete. Pitt then treks to Chapel Hill, N.C. for a showdown at North Carolina at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
THE CONTENT
• Visit the Pitt team page for more coverage from the Petersen Events Center. You can listen to the latest episode of the H2P Podcast below.