University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Pitt
13-19,5-13ACC
Stanford
20-12,9-9ACC
Minor's Last Second Tip-In Gives Pitt Win Over Stanford In ACC Tournament
3/10/2026 5:34:00 PM | Men's Basketball
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Damarco Minor's tip-in of his own missed floater with 0.7 seconds remaining lifted the 15th-seeded Pitt men's basketball team to a 64-63 victory over No. 10 seed Stanford in the first round of the T. Rowe Price ACC Men's Basketball Tournament Tuesday afternoon.
Roman Siulepa deflected the ensuing inbounds pass and the Panthers survived with the one-point win. The victory was Pitt's second in a row in dramatic fashion as the Panthers closed the regular season with a 71-69 overtime victory at Syracuse that secured the team's bid to the ACC Tournament.
The finish delivered the redemption the rematch had promised. Two weeks ago at Maples Pavilion, Pitt led the Cardinal by six with under six minutes to play before Stanford closed the game on an 18-4 run for a 75-67 win. This time, the Panthers made sure there would be no repeat.
Barry Dunning, Jr. led Pitt (13-19) with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting, adding eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks across all 40 minutes. His three-pointer with 1:01 left, the only Pitt deep ball of the second half, momentarily gave Pitt a 62-60 lead. But Stanford's superstar guard Ebuka Okorie converted a traditional three-point play, fouling out Pitt's Cameron Corhen in the process, to give the Cardinal the 63-62 advantage before Minor's heroics.
The Panthers started cold, missing their first three shots while Stanford connected on its first two three-pointers to race ahead 6-0. When the Cardinal made five of its first eight from deep and led 12-5, the game could have gotten away from Pitt quickly. Instead, it was Roman Siulepa who kept the Panthers within reach, pulling down three offensive rebounds in the game's opening minutes and converting inside to generate second-chance opportunities.
Nojus Indrusaitis halted the slide with a midrange jumper and Siulepa scored twice more inside, Witherspoon converted a layup off a Siulepa assist and added a free throw to give Pitt its first lead at 16-15.
Indrusaitis hit a three off a baseline out-of-bounds play to push it to 19-15, and Dunning finished a fast break off a Minor assist for the 21-15 advantage as part of a 14-3 run. Stanford pulled within two late in the half, but a pair of Macari Moore steals off the bench, including a tip-in conversion and a second theft that led to a Dunning driving layup at the buzzer, sent Pitt to the locker room ahead 31-23. The Panthers had held the Cardinal to 36 percent shooting and turned Stanford's eight first-half turnovers into 12 points while committing just two themselves.
The second half was a different game. Stanford shot 59.3 percent (16-of-27) after the break and chipped away systematically. The Cardinal used a 13-2 run, highlighted by an Ebuka Okorie transition three-pointer, to flip a 41-39 Pitt lead into a 45-41 Stanford advantage. But the Panthers responded each time. A Witherspoon layup tied it at 45, a Dunning driving layup reclaimed the lead, and Siulepa scored inside off a Corhen offensive rebound to push it to 49-48. The game featured 11 lead changes and four ties.
Pitt stretched the lead to seven at 57-50 on another Siulepa interior basket, again off a Corhen offensive board, with just over seven minutes to play. Stanford kept clawing, eventually taking a 60-59 lead before Dunning's three.
The story of the game was written on the glass. Pitt grabbed 20 offensive rebounds to Stanford's seven, converting that into 25 second-chance points against only seven for the Cardinal. Siulepa's five offensive boards continued what has been a standout freshman season; he led the ACC in offensive rebounding in regular season conference play. The Panthers outscored Stanford 44-32 in the paint and finished with a 41-28 rebounding advantage overall.
Siulepa delivered 14 points and seven rebounds, five on the offensive glass, as part of a dominant interior effort. Omari Witherspoon scored 11 points and grabbed six boards, and Corhen added 12 points before fouling out late in the second half.
Pitt shot just 17.6 percent from three-point range (3-of-17), which for most of the season has been a reliable predictor of defeat. But the Panthers' dominance inside more than compensated, and the team's defensive attention to Stanford's perimeter proved sufficient.
For Pitt, it is the team's second consecutive one-point game in the ACC Tournament. The Panthers lost to Notre Dame 55-54 in the first round a year ago.
Pitt will face No. 7 seed NC State in the ACC Tournament second round Wednesday at noon on ESPN2.
