Pitt found whatever it was lacking against Syracuse on Wednesday night when it traveled to face N.C. State in Raleigh on Saturday.

The Panthers were energized, focused and playing some of their best basketball in a long time. But missed free throws and a field goal drought wasted a strong effort and the Panthers lost to the Wolfpack 77-73.

Starting with Au'Diese Toney's three-point shot 17 seconds into the game, Pitt was ahead of N.C. State from the start, and the Panthers stayed in the lead throughout the first half, taking a 31-30 lead into halftime.

Pitt's lead eventually stretched to seven at 58-51 with 10 minutes left in the game, but that's when the Wolfpack rallied. Over the next three minutes, the Panthers made just one field goal and committed two turnovers as N.C. State found a groove and turned the 58-51 disadvantage into its first lead of the game at 62-61.

Pitt would go back ahead 63-62 on a pair of Eric Hamilton free throws, but a three-pointer by C.J. Bryce put N.C. State in the lead again and the Wolfpack never looked back.

One big issue preventing a comeback by the Panthers was free throws. Or, rather, it was missed free throws, as Pitt bricked seven shots from the line in the final six minutes of the game.

Overall, Pitt was 15-of-27 on free throws in the game, which was easily the worst part of the Panthers' box score. In fact, Saturday afternoon stands as one of Pitt's best shooting games on the season, as the Panthers shot 47.3% (26-of-55) from the floor and 42.9% (6-of-14) from beyond the arc.

For as good as Pitt shot, though, the team couldn't quite avoid the scoring drought that has dogged the Panthers in almost every game this season. On Saturday afternoon, the drought came at the worst possible time, as the Panthers went six minutes and 15 seconds without a made field goal in the final eight minutes - a huge factor in N.C. State's comeback.

Toney led the way for Pitt with a game-high 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including 2-of-4 from three-point range. He also had six rebounds and two steals in the loss. Eric Hamilton chipped in a solid 10 points and 9 rebounds off the bench, but he went 6-of-11 from the free throw line - a tough number in a four-point loss.

Pitt also got double-figure scoring efforts from Xavier Johnson (13 points on 5-of-14 shooting) and Justin Champagnie (10 points on 3-of-10 shooting).

The loss evens the Panthers' season record at 15-15 overall and drops their conference record to 6-13. They will close the regular season on Wednesday night at Georgia Tech.