PITTSBURGH — On Saturday afternoon at the Petersen Events Center, sharp-shooting guard Darin Green carried the Florida State Seminoles over Pitt for an ACC upset, 71-64.
With under four minutes to go, Pitt trailed by six after Florida State’s Green hit all three of his free throws stemming from a controversial foul call. Pitt’s Nelly Cummings — who started the game 1 for 10 from the field and 0 for six from three-point range — snapped out of his cold streak and hit a three to cut the lead to three.
After Cummings and Jamarius Burton hit late buckets to pull the Panthers to within one point, Green, Florida State’s hot hand, hit yet another massive three to pull the Seminole lead back up to four. They would never look back, taking home the victory.
Cummings kicked off the game with a floater in the lane, electrifying the loud Oakland Zoo and energizing the Panthers early. However, after getting off to a strong 17-11 lead, Pitt then surrendered a 14-0 Seminole run as Florida State took control for the rest of the first half.
Pitt struggled mightily to put the ball in the basket, hitting just two of its last 17 shot attempts in the first half of this one. Sophomore standout Matthew Cleveland (9 points), sharp-shooter Darin Green Jr. (8 points), and fellow guard Caleb Mills (8 points) buried the Panthers into a ten-point halftime deficit.
Pitt shot 32% from the field in the first half, as well as 17% from three-point range (2-12). Jamarius Burton scored eight in the frame, Greg Elliott added seven early on, and three other players added four points apiece to pace Pitt. Blake Hinson and Cummings, two of Pitt’s top four scorers on the year, continued to struggle early on, combining to go just 2 for 12 themselves in the first half.
However, the Panthers came out of the gates with a vengeance, looking to Elliott, Burton, and Hinson for early buckets. Pitt trimmed the lead to just three points less than five minutes into the second frame, and the stage was set for another close ACC competition down the stretch.
After starting the game 1-6 from the field, Hinson took it upon himself to bring the Panthers all the way back into this one. Panther guards Cummings and Burton found him for four more outside looks in the next five minutes, and Hinson knocked down three of them. The Panthers, and their crowd, were right back in it and had taken the lead with over 13 minutes to play.
Pitt’s Burton finished as the team’s leading scorer, hitting eight of his 13 tries to finish with 20 points. Hinson fouled out with a late penalty, but finished second in scoring with 16 points and nine rebounds in the effort.
Green led the Seminoles with a game-high 24 points, hitting five of his eight three-point attempts. In addition, Caleb Mills finished with 11, Matthew Cleveland added 11, and the team shot 51% as a whole in the contest.
With the win, Florida State improves to 7-13 (5-4 ACC), while Pitt drops to 13-7 and 6-3 in ACC play.
Pitt will look to start up a new winning streak on Wednesday, Jan. 25 against Wake Forest. That matchup will tip off at the Petersen Events Center at 7 p.m. The Demon Deacons, led by electrifying guard Tyree Appleby (Florida transfer), are 14-6 (6-3 ACC) on the year so far.
A debacle. And the classless big mouth Sibande went 1-6 and scored 4. Maybe a little less trash talk until you win something. Oh and Jamie Dixon thoroughly schooled Self today.
RATish is back trollong. Why don’t you wave your degree at us. Everyone knows that you are judge and jury. It sure was a pleasure when your big mouth was shut.
It’s always humorous when the only response is an ad hominem attack. You are always engaging me, skippy. Maybe you ought to look up the definition of “troll”. Sorry you’re envious of those of us who obtained higher education. But take solace in the fact that you’re a tough guy. And I’ll continue to express my opinions on this page and backing them up with objective facts. Go back to whining about imaginary dog whistles.
I always engage you because the ONLY time you crawl out from under your rock is when something goes WRONG. I know a troll when I see one. You are also a racist. Your not fooling ANYONE.
Hmm hmm. You have absolutely no cogent argument so you use the old “racist” trope to deflect from a terrible coach who has embarrassed the University. Fact: Capel is 64-79 in his 5th year at a Power 5 program. Fact: Capel is 27-56 in the ACC. Fact: Capel has had three players arrested in the past three years. All his recruits. Numbers don’t lie. So make yourself feel better by tossing labels at me. Absolutely says more about you. To quote Jack Nicholson from A Few Good Men “You Can’t Hamdle The Truth” so you toss insults. I’m going to… Read more »
I Will continue to keep it up. That is why you name call like skippy. I will keep responding until you become color blind. P.S. you might not like Jeff Capel, but Heather Luke does and she is NOT listening to you. Now take your diploma and stuff it.
Who is “Heather Luke” ? You are an embarrassment with the spelling errors, misnaming players and administrators and the childlike grammar. My diplomas (I have a BS MPA and MBA and a CPA for good measure) are all framed skippy. I’m proud of them, so I’m not going to”stuff them”. Keeping race out of it- you’re a clown. You’re the one obsessed with race, not me. All I give a damn about is performance. And by all measures Capel stinks. You’re trying to blame legitimate criticism on racism. Kind of pathetic really.
Wave those degrees. If you want to see a clown ,look in YOUR mirror. You have never said a positive thing in your life. You are like a thunderstorm on a sunny day. And you are a racist. You wouldn’t know legitimate criticism if it slapped you in the face. And you’re also
Once again a Capel team shows up unprepared and unmotivated. They should be embarrassed losing to this FSU team at home.
Fans showed up, but players and coaches did not.
Big Mouth Capel is EXACTLY who we thought he was.
How many more seasons of this do Pitt fans deserve?
Tournament?!? Hahahha. NIT…maybe.
I honestly don’t think L’Ville or FSU are as bad as their records. I was really worried about this game. I didn’t think they played great against L’Ville despite winning by 20, but they were sloppy in this one. I’m hoping this won’t end up as bad a loss as it currently is. Maybe a Quad 3 loss instead of a Quad 4 loss.
Louisville is horrific. By far the worst team in the Power 5. Florida State actually looked decent but they have some terrible losses among their 13.
They have talent, they’re terribly coached and only have one guard. No one thought they would be this bad. They’re not Kevin Stallings Pitt bad, I don’t think.
Kevin Stallings won 9 non conference games. Louisville had lost to some of the worst teams in Division 1 and will probably end up 2-30. Probably the worst Power five team in at least 20 years.
It’s really not worth arguing how bad L’Ville is. I’m glad they’re bad and Pitt beat them anyway. My point was that I’m hoping this FSU loss turns into a Quad 3 loss if they win some more games, thus not hurting their tournament chances as badly. Also, Stallings won 8 non conference games, don’t give that turd more credit than he deserves.
This is what happens when you argue with a person who has a degree.