Feb 16, 2016 3 min read

PITTSBURGH – James Robinson scored 22 points, including five free throws in the final minute to seal it as Pittsburgh escaped with an ugly 101-96 double-overtime win over Wake Forest on Tuesday night.

Chris Jones scored a career-high 23 points for the Panthers before fouling out in the second overtime. Jamel Artis and Michael Young added 19 points apiece as Pitt (18-7, 7-6 ACC) ended a three-game losing streak and narrowly avoided a loss that would have put a severe blow into its hopes of making the NCAA tournament.

Cornelius Hudson led the Demon Deacons (10-16, 1-13) with 22 points and Bryant Crawford had 20 but Wake Forest dropped its 11th straight conference game and has now lost 23 consecutive road games in the ACC.

This was no classic. The teams slogged through the end of regulation and the first extra period before Pitt eventually pulled away.

The Panthers appeared to be in control when Young hit a difficult layup while getting fouled and made the ensuing free throw to put Pitt up 56-46 with 11:50 to go. Wake Forest, mired in the third-longest conference losing streak in program history, put together an improbable rally.

A 22-7 burst fueled by Crawford and Miller-McIntyre put the Demon Deacons in front 68-63 with 3:39 to go. Yet nothing has come easy this season for Wake Forest, which let a seven-point advantage with less than 17 seconds to go get away against Virginia last month.

Pitt eventually tied the score at 69 and the teams traded clutch baskets in the final 34 seconds of regulation. Dinos Mitoglou’s 3 gave Wake the lead only to have Robinson answer with a 3 of his own with 16 seconds to play to force overtime.

Wake Forest had the ball and an 82-81 lead with 9 seconds left in the first overtime but Codi-Miller McIntyre inexplicably threw the inbounds pass to Robinson, who was fouled. He made one of two to tie the game and Crawford’s runner from the corner had no chance.

Another 3-pointer Hudson put the Demon Deacons ahead 89-88 in the second overtime but Artis hit a pull-up jumper, Sheldon Jeter drilled a 17-footer and Robinson made a pair of free throws to finally put Wake Forest away.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon called out his team after getting “manhandled” during a 21-point loss at North Carolina on Sunday, Pitt’s third straight defeat and the program’s fifth setback by 13 points or more this season. If Dixon was trying to light a fire under his struggling club, it didn’t work, at least not early.

The Demon Deacons hit 10 of their first 14 shots to take an early lead. Crawford scored eight points in a span of 50 seconds on a free throw, a 3-pointer and a pair of steals he converted into layups. The second swipe came off a sloppy inbounds pass by the Panthers. The miscue sent Dixon angrily calling for a timeout in hopes of getting his team to settle down.

Pitt put together a late surge to take a 35-33 lead into the break but Wake Forest would simply not go away.

Tip-ins: Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons shot just 16 of 32 (50 percent) at the free-throw line. … Wake Forest outscored Pitt in the paint 42-34.

Pitt: The Panthers outrebounded Wake Forest 58-35 and had 26 offensive rebounds, leading to 25 second-chance points.

Up next: Pitt: at Syracuse on Saturday.