DURHAM, N.C. — Heading into Saturday night, Pitt had won just one of its last five games. The Panthers were 10-7 overall and 1-5 in ACC play — with No. 7 Duke up next on the slate.
As Pitt struggled to win games, its senior leader, Blake Hinson, began to struggle to shoot and score the ball as well as he had earlier in the year. Despite his unwavering confidence on and off the court, Hinson’s numbers started to decline. Over the six games leading up to this one, Hinson — who, at one point, was the nation’s leader in three pointers this year — had made just 21 of his last 77 field-goal attempts. That’s 27%. Nowhere near elite shooting numbers.
Saturday night, Hinson brought his usual energy. As always, he was visibly pumped up before the game, preparing to take on the role of a villain. And boy, did he ever.
After a Federiko Federiko slam opened the scoring for Pitt, the Panthers earned a defensive stop and pushed the ball down the floor. There was Hinson, on the wing, waiting to hoist up a three.
Splash. 5-0 Pitt, and 1-1 for Hinson.
That was only the beginning for the Deltona, Florida native. He proceeded to hit two more threes and a layup throughout the rest of the first half, leading Pitt into the halftime locker room with a 38-34 lead over the top-ten Blue Devils.
Then came the second half. The half in which Hinson — who had already hit big shot after big shot last year in the Panthers’ NCAA Tournament run — cemented his legacy in the minds of Pitt fans all around forever.
Right out of the gates, Hinson stepped into yet another three. He was now 4-4, and Pitt had shown no signs of slowing down. The Duke crowd grew tense with each possession. As the game became more and more tense, the crowd, the players, and the coaches all began to get louder and louder. Chippier and chippier. Of course, Hinson embraced it all.
After some calls (and non-calls) didn’t go Pitt’s way, Hinson was upset with the referees and the opponent. Not even five minutes into the second half, he was assessed a technical foul, igniting the Duke faithful — especially the student section: the Cameron Crazies. Three minutes later, Hinson and the Panthers trailed by one point as Duke had rallied back into the lead. However, the sharpshooter stepped up and hit two-straight threes, quickly pushing Pitt’s lead up to five in a matter of 41 seconds.
But Hinson wasn’t done yet. He hit another three with 6:35 to go, pushing Pitt in front by two in a back-and-forth affair that was quickly becoming an all-time classic for Pitt fans watching at home and for all in attendance in Durham.
To cap off his night, the senior knocked down the final point for the Panthers — a free-throw with four seconds left — to extend the lead to four and bury the Blue Devils once and for all.
In classic Blake Hinson fashion — just when you thought things were crazy, they were about to get even crazier. Several of the shots that he made throughout the night could be described as ‘wild’ to one who has not seen Hinson play before. Behind him and big-time performances from Jaland Lowe and several other Panthers, Pitt — 13-point underdogs — pulled off a massive upset at Cameron Indoor over the No. 7 Blue Devils. But he wasn’t done just yet.
As soon as the buzzer sounded, Guillermo Diaz-Graham darted to the bench to celebrate with his brother and the rest of his teammates and coaches. However, the rest of the players on the floor rushed to center court, as did Jorge Diaz-Graham off the bench along with one of the team’s videographers. There, they witnessed a moment that the Panthers and all of the fans that watched that game (or any game in the Hinson-era) will never forget.
Hinson launched himself on top of the front-row table that spans the entire baseline and houses the media in Cameron Indoor. There, he looked right into the eyes of hundreds of furious Duke students, blew them a kiss, and cemented himself into the history of this legendary building.
“First of all, no disrespect, honestly,” Hinson said about the moment. “This is one of the hardest places to win in the nation. So that was just an example of you climbing Mount Everest and looking at it from up top.”
The moment quickly spread across the internet, garnering hundreds of thousands of views within an hour across the Twitter sphere. Some, including Duke fans — may have been surprised at Hinson’s move. Some may have felt disrespected by Hinson’s move.
But that move — to climb up onto the table, look into that crowd, and let out all of his emotions — personifies the journey that Blake Hinson has taken to get to this moment. He has cemented himself as a legend in the eyes of Pitt fans, and college basketball fans everywhere who were up late watching Saturday night’s game.
Great win!
H2P!!!
The difference I saw in Hinson was he was more patient and stopped forcing drives to the bucket. Some of those threes were prayers, but for the most part his shots were within the flow of the game. Game MVP for me should be shared with Lowe because he was the one that held it together as the general when Duke was making a run.
C’mon Duke, cry babies, cry !!!
My god I hate Dook and their fans especially are crybabies. This was a sweet win for sure but the cherry on top was Hinson on the table with a hundred middle fingers in his direction. I’ll never forget it and be sure it will be replayed again and again and again. Love it.