Last year, Pitt put a nice touch on its season with a win in the first round of the ACC Tournament.

This year, with the team needing something positive even more than it did a year ago, the Panthers played one of their best games of the season and beat Wake Forest 81-72.

Freshman Justin Champagnie led the way for Pitt, as the freshman made his ACC Tournament debut with 31 points on 13-of-19 shooting, including 3-of-7 from three. But he wasn’t the only Panther to excel on Tuesday afternoon. Instead, it was a team effort, with five players in double figures, only one player with more than two turnovers, six players with at least two rebounds and 40% shooting or better from every Pitt player who took at least four shots.

Champagnie’s 30 points were complemented by 14 from Trey McGowens, who hit double figures for the first time since the Feb. 8 win over Georgia Tech - not coincidentally, Pitt’s last victory before struggling through a seven-game losing streak.

Xavier Johnson, Au’Diese Toney and Abdoul Karim Coulibaly all scored 10 points. Johnson added eight assists - his most since he had 10 against Boston College on Jan. 22.

Pitt played well from the start on Tuesday, but Wake Forest looked like it might have a chance to take control when the Deacons went ahead by eight in the final 10 minutes of the first half. But the Panthers weathered the storm and outscored Wake 10-3 in the final 4:33 before halftime to go into the locker room trailing by just one point.

Key to Pitt’s staying in the game was avoiding the long scoring droughts that have dogged the team all season. The Panthers’ longest scoreless stretch in the first half was two minutes and 34 seconds, and they never had a scoring drought of longer than two minutes after halftime.

The win was much-needed for Pitt, who finished the regular season with a 15-16 overall record and a 6-14 mark in the ACC. The Panthers entered the conference tournament as the No. 13 seed riding a seven-game losing streak dating back to the beginning of February.

With the victory, Pitt advances to the second round of the ACC Tournament and a 2 p.m. tipoff against No. 5 seed N.C. State on Wednesday.