Free throw shooting keys Florida State win

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The Pitt men’s basketball team held Florida State without a made field goal for the final two minutes of Sunday’s game after Okaro White beat the shot clock from beyond the arc to give the Seminoles a six-point lead with 2:20 to play. 

As it was, Florida State didn’t need another field goal because the Seminoles scored 13 points from the free-throw line in the final 140 seconds to secure their 71-66 victory against Pitt, spoiling Senior Day for Lamar Patterson and Talib Zanna and extending the Panthers’ losing streak to a season-high three games. 

“The free throws in the second half, I think that weighed on us,” head coach Jamie Dixon said. “When you keep missing, and they’re knocking down free throws, they beat us at the free-throw line.”

Florida State (16-11, 7-8 ACC) finished 27-of-31 from the charity stripe for an excellent 87.1 percent clip while the Panthers (20-7, 8-6 ACC) shot a measly 64.3 percent, making just 18-of-28 attempts. 

“They only missed four free throws. We missed 10,” guard Cameron Wright said. “You put that together, we win the ball game.”

Pitt held the advantage at the free-throw line throughout the first half and into the second through an aggressive approach by the Panthers, according to Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton. Because of their aggression in getting to the basket, the Panthers had shot 15 more free throws than the Seminoles at one point in the second half. 

“We couldn’t get out of the way, and there was contact. They were forcing the contact, and they got to the foul line,” Hamilton said. “They were very smart in their approach at that particular time.” 

Hamilton then guided his team’s focus to the free-throw line, emulating the strategy employed by Dixon up to that point. There, the Seminoles took control of the game. 

“We called a timeout, we became a little more aggressive, so we got to the foul line in a similar fashion,” Hamilton said. “Fortunate enough for us, we knocked those down.”

Missing 10 free throws to the Seminoles’ four reflects on what Wright believes accounts for Pitt’s current three-game skid.

“I personally feel like we beat ourselves, the last three games,” Wright said. “It’s a battle with ourselves. The game is more mental than it is physical.”

With the Panthers seemingly losing that battle the past three outings, the side effects have manifested primarily in the team’s offensive characteristics, according to its head coach. For one, Dixon believes impatience is the biggest enemy to Pitt’s offensive success.

“Shooting bad shots, just not moving the ball like we’re known for and what we have done,” Dixon said. “You can lose it for periods of time, but I think we’ve lost it for a stretch here.”

The Panthers shot just 37 percent from the field on 20-of-54 shooting Sunday, and even those numbers were inflated by four later 3-pointers from Patterson, who shot 4-of-17 from the field in the 38 minutes before his late scoring binge.

Next to impatience, Dixon also referenced “poor possessions” negatively impacting the Panthers throughout games.

“We need to play through missed shots, Dixon said. “I think we’re letting a missed shot effect us two plays later.” 

Sunday’s loss is the first for the Panthers on a Senior Day since losing to Seton Hall in 2006 and moves Pitt to 8-4 on such occasions at the Petersen Events Center. More importantly, Pitt’s loss moves the team lower in the league standings — now into a tie with Clemson for fifth place — and just 1.5 games above the ninth-place Seminoles.

“That’s not what I expected based on our practices this week,” Dixon said. “I was excited about how we worked and how we played, but we didn’t play like we practiced. This obviously is the result.”