Entering Pitt’s game against North Carolina on Tuesday night, the primary storyline was how the Panthers would handle the Tar Heels’ considerable size advantage.

In this case, the pregame storyline was accurate, as Pitt had no answer for UNC big men Armando Bacot and Garrison Brooks and the Panthers lost to the Tar Heels 75-65 at the Petersen Events Center.

The loss dropped Pitt to 8-4 overall and 4-3 in the ACC, and the Panthers have now lost two games in a row following Saturday’s defeat at Wake Forest.

The paint was where the game was decided on Tuesday night. 22 of UNC’s 34 first-half points were scored in the paint, and Bacot and Brooks combined to score 21 points before halftime. But that doesn’t entirely account for Pitt’s almost complete lack of production outside of Justin Champagnie. The sophomore forward one of just three Panthers to hit a field goal in the first 20 minutes: he made 5-of-6, Ithiel Horton hit 3-of-7 and Abdoul Karim Coulibaly made 1-of-3.

Most glaring was the virtual absence of Xavier Johnson and Au’Diese Toney. Neither of the junior leaders hit a shot in the first half - combined 0-of-8 - and they scored a total of three points, all on Johnson free throws.

In the second half, Pitt opened things up a bit and it started near the basket. The Panthers’ first points in the half came from a Toney dunk, which was followed by a Champagnie dunk. Next came a layup around the basket from Coulibaly and a dunk from Terrell Brown.

Horton hit a three to keep the offensive success going for Pitt, and the Panthers cut the lead to five with less than 12 minutes to play, but Carolina responded with a tidy 7-0 run over the next minute to take control again.

The Panthers didn’t go away, though. Even after the Tar Heels went up 66-50 with eight minutes left in the game, Pitt kept battling and posted a 13-2 run over the next four minutes. Key to that run was a 6-1 advantage on the boards, but UNC went back to its bread and butter with a Bacot layup and followed that with a three-pointer by freshman guard Caleb Love.

Pitt had the lead down to five points with three minutes to play, but the Panthers missed all of their final four field goal attempts down the stretch and Carolina scored five unanswered to set the final score.

Champagnie paced Pitt with another double-double, scoring 23 points and grabbing 10 rebounds and Horton added 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting, but Johnson and Toney scored a combined 15 points on 5-of-18 from the floor.

Meanwhile, Bacot scored 21 and Brooks had 16 for UNC, who outrebounded Pitt 37-29, including 14 offensive rebounds that turned into 18 second-chance points. The Tar Heels shot better than 68% from inside the arc on Tuesday night and scored 48 of their 75 points in the paint.

Pitt will get a chance to break its two-game losing streak on Saturday when Notre Dame comes to the Petersen Events Center for an 8:00 pm tipoff.