It was a physical, grind-it-out type of game, but in the end North Carolina State made a couple of more winning plays than Pitt down the stretch to come up with a 74-73 win on Wednesday afternoon at the Petersen Events Center. The Panthers have now lost three straight games since upsetting Virginia Tech on February 3rd.

Coming out of the timeout trailing 74-73 with 9 seconds remaining, Pitt got Au'Diese Toney on an isolation look. His shot was off, Champagnie's second attempt from the corner fell short and the Panthers dropped to 9-8 on the season.

With the win today, North Carolina State continued its dominance of Pitt in the all-time series. The Wolfpack now own a 20-2 overall record against Pitt, and have won 11 straight games over the Panthers.

Pitt played a sloppy game reminiscent of Sunday's defeat to Georgia Tech. The Panthers were hit with three technicals with Xavier Johnson, Femi Odukale, and Jeff Capel all being whistled. The team also showed some struggles with foul shooting going 19-28 from the free-throw line.

It was a physical game with 39 fouls called between the two teams, and four technicals overall called with an NC State player being hit with one later in the game as well.

Pitt trailed for most of the second half, but grabbed a late lead when Xavier Johnson used a behind the back move on a fast break to give Pitt a 71-69 lead with 1:49 left. It was short-lived, however. NC State immediately grabbed the lead right back on a DJ Funderburk bucket and the foul to give the Wolpack the lead for good.

Champagnie led the Panthers with 18 points, though he finished just 3-of-11 from the floor with most of his damage coming from the free-throw line. Toney had 17 points with 14 of those coming in the first half, as his play kept the Panthers in the game for the opening 20 minutes.

Johnson also found double figures going for 14 points, but the technical and other fouls limited him to just 19 minutes of action. He and Ithiel Horton came off the bench for the second time in the past four games, likely as a result of technicals from the prior contest.

Pitt returns to action on Saturday when Florida State comes to the Petersen Events Center. The game is finally being made up after it being postponed twice. The Seminoles enter the game as the No . 16 team in the country and are coming off a commanding 81-60 win over Virginia on Monday evening.