Pitt beats Florida State for its 18th overall victory, 11th in the ACC
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Before the start of the season, a suggestion that Pitt might win 18 games — 11 of them in the ACC — would have been met with ridicule.
The Panthers hadn’t won 18 overall since 2016 when they finished 21-12, perhaps the most recent time anyone took the program seriously. They hit the wall at 11 last year.
On Saturday, they reached 18 with six more to play.
The unranked Panthers (18-7, 11-3) are tied for first place in the ACC after surviving a serious challenge from 10th-place Florida State before pulling away for an 83-75 victory in Tallahassee, Fla. The Panthers, picked 14th in the ACC preseason media poll, share the lead with Virginia (19-4, 11-3) but would win the tiebreaker because of their victory last month against the Cavaliers.
That 11th victory was the most for Pitt in the ACC since it finished 11-7 in 2013-2014, its first season in the conference.
It also was Pitt’s seventh in nine tries on an opposing floor. In the four previous seasons under coach Jeff Capel (31 games), Pitt won a total of seven games on foreign hardwood.
How did they react to their fifth consecutive victory?
Pretty much with a shrug of the shoulders and an eagerness to prepare for Boston College, the next opponent Tuesday at Petersen Events Center.
• “I wouldn’t say that’s a special thing,” Blake Hinson said on the postgame show on 93.7 FM. “We’re trying to win more.”
• “We’ll enjoy it on the ride home,” coach Jeff Capel said, “and start getting ready for the next one.”
• “We’re not done yet,” assistant coach Jason Capel said on the postgame show. “We have more season to go. We’re going to keep taking it one step at a time.”
• “Exciting that we tied the (program record for ACC victories), but we have bigger goals,” said Nike Sibande, whose 10 points in three minutes off the bench helped squelch a Florida State rally in the second half.
The game didn’t come down to the final possession such as so many other Pitt victories this season. But the outcome was in doubt midway through the second half when Florida State (8-18, 6-9) took two one-point leads (48-47 and 50-49).
At that point, point guard Nelly Cummings had been playing hurt. He had also done so Tuesday against Louisville after suffering an injury Monday in practice.
So Capel turned to reserve guard Nike Sibande, who had been scoreless for the first 32-plus minutes. He hit two 3s, both with Pitt clinging to two- and three-point leads, and finished with 12 points in a 7-minute, 24-second span.
“Nelly’s battling a little bit of injury. I thought that was hindering him a little bit,” Jeff Capel said. “Just in that moment, Nike came in and played really well and we decided to ride with him the rest of the game.
“Nike’s a confident guy. We have a lot of confidence in him. He was able to get in a rhythm, just stepped up and made some big plays.
“He can do that. Nike’s a guy, his whole life he’s scored. He can score points in bunches. His teammates know that when he gets going, we try to find him and just let him go.”
In that same second-half time frame, Guillermo Diaz Graham scored twice — once to break a 45-45 tie — and he finished with six points and five rebounds in 11 minutes.
The coaching staff had studied Florida State carefully after Pitt’s 71-64 loss to the Seminoles on Jan. 24. Capel ignored Florida State’s struggles and merely focused on their size, athleticism and tendency to switch defenses.
His brother, Jason, said the key to the victory was sharing the ball.
“You have to have movement against this team,” Jason Capel said. “They’re going to switch (on defense), one through five (players). You can take advantage of mismatches, but you want to get a piece of the paint, then move the basketball out. The ball was moving, different guys stepped up, able to knock down shots.”
On a day when Pitt missed 21 of 31 3-point attempts, Jamarius Burton and Hinson each scored 19 points, followed by Greg Elliott (13) and Federiko Federiko (eight points, 13 rebounds and three blocks).
Hinson had scored a total of 13 points in the past two games, and he had missed six of his first seven 3-pointers Saturday. But he nailed one from behind the arc with 2:35 left to boost Pitt’s lead from six to nine and end Florida State’s comeback thoughts.
From that point, the Panthers built the final margin by hitting 9 of 10 foul shots. They went 18 of 23 on free throws for the game.
“When you’re on the road,” Jason Capel said, “you have to have a greater sense of concentration and togetherness, and I thought we did that for 40 minutes.”
Sibande deflected credit to Jeff Capel.
“Coach of the Year, straight up,” he proclaimed. “He is finding a way to get it done. Nobody expected us to be in this position we’re in right now. He makes it happen.”