Pitt had one lead in the entire game Wednesday night against Northwestern - the final one. Justin Champagnie's slam dunk with five seconds remaining gave Pitt a 71-70 victory in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Northwestern's final shot attempt fell short, and the Panthers escaped with an improbable victory and improved to 3-1 on the young season. The win moves Pitt to 4-3 all-time in the event since it joined the ACC.
Champagnie's game-winning basket gave him 20 points. He also finished with a career-high 20 rebounds and becomes the first Pitt player since DeJuan Blair to record a 20-point and 20-rebound game since the former Panther achieved that back in the 2009 season.
Wednesday was a tale of two halves for Pitt. The Panthers came out in the first and shot the ball terribly to start the game. Pitt was just 8-of-39 from the field in the first half, including a 2-of-14 clip from behind the arc. The Wildcats maintained a comfortable lead, but never put the game out of reach despite a dreadful start from Jeff Capel's team. Northwestern took a 33-22 advantage into halftime.
The second half adjustments worked for Pitt. The Panthers found some success on offense, but really stuck it to Northwestern on defense coming out of the intermission. Pitt held the Wildcats to just two made field goals in the first ten minutes of second half and limited the Wildcats to just 3-of-14 from behind the three-point line.
The Panthers were sparked after halftime by junior point guard Xavier Johnson. He scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half. Johnson knocked down five three-pointers and willed Pitt at times on offense, despite playing through some foul trouble.
Even with the increased effort on defense and Johnson finding a rhythm on offense, the Wildcats kept the Panthers at arm's length for much of the second half. Pitt cut it to a one-point game multiple times, once on a William Jeffress jumper to make it to 45-44 with 10:17, then again later on a Toney 3-pointer to cut it to 54-53 with 4:39 left. Still Pitt could not get over the hump and grab an advantage.
Xavier Johnson was whistled for his fourth foul with 10:45 remaining in the game, right when Pitt looked to have taken the momentum away. That forced Johnson to sit for a few minutes, as Pitt had to lean on freshman Femi Odukale to run the team in his absence.
After returning to action, Johnson attacked the basket and hit the deck hard with no call, which led to Capel being hit with a technical with 5:19 remaining. Despite Johnson's foul trouble and Capel's technical, Pitt maintained its composure in the closing minutes thanks to the play by some of the freshmen.
Odukale, William Jeffress, and John Hugley all made key plays down the stretch, and Noah Collier filled in playing center for some stretches in the second half.
Pitt closed the game on a 6-0 run in a wild, and unlikely finish after trailing for 39:55 in the game. The Panthers return to action on Saturday when Pitt hosts Gardner-Webb for a 4:00 p.m. tip-off at the Petersen Events Center. It will be Pitt's last non-conference game before it embarks on a 20-game ACC schedule.