“Polo! Polo!”

The chants were loud, the cheers were real for Pitt’s Damarco Minor, the proud-talking fifth-year point guard they call “Polo,” who’s in his first season with the Panthers.

Well, “Polo” just made a shot heard ’round Oakland.

In just Minor’s eighth game at Pitt after spending a year at the junior college level, two seasons at SIU-Edwardsville and another at Oregon State, he scored his first college buzzer-beater Friday night at Petersen Events Center, a long 3-point shot to beat Ohio State, 67-66.

Afterwards, “Polo,” who scored 18 points and logged five of Pitt’s nine steals, shrugged and said, “I just do what my body tells me to do.”

Five days after an embarrassing home loss to heavy underdog Quinnipiac, Pitt snagged its first signature win against a previously unbeaten Ohio State bunch that was perched just outside the national rankings and was playing for the first time in seven games away from home.

Minor’s shot lifted Pitt from a seemingly sure loss and gave the Panthers their second last-second victory against the Buckeyes in as many seasons.

“What a great win,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said. “Polo just made a big-time play, a big-time shot in a really good basketball game. I’m proud of our team. We beat a good team.”

A year ago in Columbus, Ohio, Pitt edged Ohio State on Zack Austin’s 3-point shot with less than a second to play in overtime for a 91-90 victory.

This time, it was Minor’s turn.

“I’ve been telling my guys for three days, I said, ‘Bro, the Lord sent us this trial to see if we’re going to give up,’ ” Minor said.

Pitt (5-3) was coming off a deflating 83-75 home loss to Quinnipiac on Sunday.

On top of it, the Panthers failed to compete favorably against two previous high-major opponents, losing by an average of 16 points to West Virginia and Central Florida.

Ohio State was leading Division I in field-goal percentage, hitting at a 67.4-percent clip.

“It’s a team that had been playing at an incredibly elite level, offensively. They were averaging 92 points a game,” Capel said. “To hold this team to 66 points was huge. We knew coming in for us to have a chance to win, we had to defend them and make them uncomfortable.”

After Amare Bynum’s putback off a missed shot gave Ohio State a 66-64 lead, Pitt called timeout.

Playing a second consecutive game without injured second-leading scorer Brandin Cummings, the Panthers inbounded to Minor who, with time about to expire, steered to a spot well behind the top of the 3-point arc and nailed the game-winner.

“It wasn’t even like reality,” Minor said. “It was like something was about to happen. Everything, the crowd noise went numb. My body went numb and I’m like, ‘Something’s about to happen. I don’t know what’s about to happen.’ ”

But it happened.

“Give coach Capel and Pittsburgh credit. They stepped up and hit a big-time shot,” Ohio State coach Jake Diebler said. “Disappointed in the way we started, proud of the way we fought back in the second half. You can’t waste that much time on the road. Unfortunately, it was just enough.”

Cameron Corhen and Barry Dunning Jr. matched Minor’s team high with 18 points for Pitt. Omari Witherspoon added 11 for the Panthers, who remain at home to play Texas A&M on Tuesday night in the ACC-SEC Challenge.

Corhen led Pitt with 10 rebounds as the Panthers held a 39-38 edge on the glass.

Ohio State’s Devin Royal led all scorers with 22 points. Bruce Thornton added 18 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, and 7-foot Christoph Tilly chipped in 10 points for the Buckeyes (6-1).

After losing a lead it had held for much of game, Pitt came back from five points down to tie it 62-62 on a pair of free throws by Witherspoon with 1:21 left.

Thornton’s runner with just more than a minute to play put Ohio State back in front 64-62.

Corhen then sank a pair from the line at the other end for Pitt with 35 seconds remaining to tie it again at 64-64.

“The thing I’m probably most proud of was when they punched back, we kept fighting. We stayed together down the stretch after struggling to make free throws,” Capel said. “(But) Omari made his two, Cam made his two. They put us in a position for Polo to make the play that he made at the end … that allowed us to have a moment.”

After rallying from 12 points down in the first half, Ohio State got its first lead beyond the midpoint of the second half and held it for all but a brief spell.

Pitt took a 10-point lead into the second half and immediately began to fritter it away while freshman forward Roman Siulepa was committing his third and fourth fouls in a span of 23 seconds.

When Royal scored on a driving layup and followed with a running jumper for Ohio State less than 90 seconds in, Capel swiftly signaled for a timeout with the Panthers’ lead whittled to 34-30.

He immediately lashed out at his players as they were heading to the sideline, then slammed a clipboard to the floor as even before they had assembled on the bench.

With the current lineup seated in front of Capel by now, he continued to jaw, seemingly imploring his guys to awaken from their slumber.

“I was really upset,” Capel said. “We didn’t get off to the start, offensively or defensively, that we needed to. I was upset and I tried to hide it at the end of the first half because we shouldn’t have switched a screen. They got a layup, so it went from (a 12-point lead to a 10-point lead), and then they scored the first six points of the second half.

“I didn’t think we were playing with the force necessary on both ends.”

The Panthers responded with a some crisper play.

But Ohio State fought back to pull even at 42-42 on Royal’s 3-pointer.

After the teams traded baskets, Corhen’s three-point play put Pitt back in front 47-44 near the midpoint of the second half.

A pair of Gabe Cupps free throws pulled Ohio State within 47-46 before Tilly sank a pair to give Ohio State its first lead, 48-47 with 8:41 to go.

“The second half was a lot more fun than the first, back and forth,” Diebler said.

In the end, though, with Ohio State appearing to have the last of the back-and-forth, Polo’s shot saved Pitt.

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