Blake Hinson's 24 points lead Pitt to road stunner against No. 7 Duke

If anyone in the crowd of 9,314 at Cameron Indoor Stadium did not see Blake Hinson’s passion overflowing Saturday night, he offered an encore performance moments after Pitt’s stunning 80-76 upset of the No. 7 Blue Devils.

Hinson jumped up on a table — inches from the Duke student section — to briefly confront the Cameron Crazies, a final dagger in his effort that yielded 24 points, a team-high eight rebounds and an ACC record-tying seven 3-pointers without a miss.

pic.twitter.com/c00aoejpk7

— Squilliam Fancyson (@tallorder22) January 21, 2024

After stepping off the table, Hinson left Cameron as one of only four players in conference history to hit seven-of-seven shots from beyond the arc. The seven 3s also represented a Pitt record and were the most by an opponent at Cameron.

When told during the postgame show on 93.7 The Fan that he had tied the ACC record, Hinson said, “That’s great. I should have shot another one.”

Hinson’s 100% 3-point performance surfaced after he had hit only 11 of 49 (22.4%) over the previous six games.

The victory that ended Duke’s eight-game winning streak was Pitt’s first at Cameron since 1979 after five previous tries. It also was the program’s first road victory against a ranked team since 2013.

”I’m honestly tearing up thinking about it,” Hinson said. “That’s what I came here to do, do special things for this program like they’ve done for me.”

Pitt (11-7, 2-5) led for all but 2 1/2 of the game’s 40 minutes, recovering from a 75-53 loss to Duke on Jan.9 at Petersen Events Center.

“Heckuva win for us against a really good team in a place that’s tough to play,” coach Jeff Capel said.

Perhaps the key to the game was Duke (13-4, 4-2) losing the rebound battle, 32-25, while playing without starters Jeremy Roach and Mark Mitchell, who were out with knee injuries.

Under any circumstance, the victory was important to shake Pitt players awake after their struggles over the past month.

“We talked about getting back to who we are,” Capel said. “The previous two games (losses to Duke and Syracuse), the spirit was not what it was earlier. We talked about sharing emotion and being together and fighting together. Our guys came out and they did that.”

The Panthers’ seldom relinquished the lead, but they never led by more than seven in the second half. Yet anytime Duke took a lead, Pitt punched back quickly.

• In the first half, Zack Austin and Bub Carrington made baskets to erase a lead Duke had taken only 1 minute, 16 seconds prior.

• In the second half, Hinson (twice) and Jaland Lowe made 3-pointers within a half-minute of Duke inching ahead.

• Pitt’s lead was down to 72-71 with 1:07 to play, but Lowe ignored the drama and hit a 3-pointer with 43 seconds left to give Pitt a 75-71 lead.

• The Panthers secured the victory with free throws, hitting 7 of 10 in the final 4 1/2 minutes.

“There were so many big-time plays by our guys,” Capel said.

The second-most impressive performance belonged to Lowe, the freshman point guard who recorded 17 points, six assists, two steals and no turnovers in 29 minutes.

“For a freshman to come on the road and have six assists and no turnovers is incredibly impressive,” Capel said. “I can’t say enough about Jaland.”

Also, Ishmael Leggett scored 11 points and center Federiko Federiko returned to the starting lineup for the first time since Dec. 9 and contributed nine points and grabbed five rebounds.

“I thought Federiko looked like he looked last year. He was terrific,” Capel said.

Capel said he felt mixtures of pride and happiness for a team that “wants to be good,” but has been enduring what he called “a tough patch over the last month.”

”But they’ve continued to show up. They’ve continued to fight and they’ve continued to be really good teammates.”

The second half wasn’t always pretty. “It was choppy at the end,” Capel said.

At one point, Hinson was called for a technical foul for chirping while Duke freshman Jared McCain, who led his team with 20 points, was getting ready to shoot free throws.

With nine seconds left and Pitt up, 79-75, Federiko fouled Tyrese Proctor while he was shooting a 3-pointer. Proctor missed the first, made the second and intentionally missed the third, hoping for a rebound. But he missed the rim and, by rule, Pitt gained possession.

”We fouled when we shouldn’t have,” Capel said. “But in the end we were able to get the basketball (inbounds) and guys stepped up and made big-time free throws.

“We were road tough. We were Pittsburgh tough.”