How did Pitt follow its win at North Carolina on Wednesday night?

By coming back to the Petersen Events Center and laying an egg against objectively the worst team in the ACC.

Three days after looking like they were finally making real progress, finally developing and finally improving in last full month of the season, the Panthers regressed Saturday night, losing to Georgia Tech 68-62.

The loss dropped Pitt to 11-17 overall and 6-11 in the ACC. The Yellow Jackets improved to 11-15 and 4-11.

Marred by turnovers, poor transition defense and the kind of unfocused and un-energized play that was notably absent from the win at UNC, Pitt struggled throughout the night on Saturday. They committed 16 turnovers in the game, resulting in 19 points for Georgia Tech, and at least some of those turnovers contributed to the Yellow Jackets’ 17 fast break points.

Conversely, the Panthers - not a great transition team - scored just four fast break points and managed just six points on Georgia Tech’s 11 turnovers.

Pitt had an unsurprising slow start Saturday night, but after the Yellow Jackets jumped out to a 14-7 lead, the Panthers started chipping away, and they went on a full-blown run to turn a 21-16 deficit into a 24-21 lead.

But Pitt couldn’t keep the momentum, and Georgia Tech closed the first half on an 11-2 run to take a 37-28 lead at halftime.

Unfortunately for the home crowd, Pitt’s moments of strong play only came in fits and starts, and after a three-basket run to open the second half, they didn’t come at all. Pitt never got closer than three points in the final 20 minute and trailed by 18 at one point. And while the Panthers mounted a mini-run in the final four minutes that saw them force two shot-clock violations as they cut the lead to four, it wasn’t enough to overcome the poor play that defined the game and has defined the season.

Pitt’s lone bright spot was Mo Gueye who showed up on Senior Night with a career-high 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds. Sophomore John Hugley was similarly effective, putting up 18 points and 11 rebounds. But the back court didn’t give the Panthers much.

Femi Odukale scored three points - all from the free throw line - and committed four turnovers against just three assists. Jamarius Burton scored four points on 1-of-11 shooting, although he at least had seven assists. And Ithiel Horton scored 10 points but needed 11 attempts to get there (he made three).

Plus, Pitt’s three-man bench - Will Jeffress, Noah Collier and Onyebuchi Ezeakudo - attempted one shot and didn’t score a point.

Now the Panthers have to find a way to recapture the energy they had in their three-game winning streak over Florida State, N.C. State and Georgia Tech. They will host Miami on Tuesday night at the Petersen Events Center before closing the home schedule against Duke next Tuesday and ending the regular season at Notre Dame the following Saturday.