RALEIGH, N.C. — Jeff Capel sat on the question for a bit — six seconds, to be exact — as he gathered his thoughts.

After a trying, tumultuous week in which his Pitt team saw two of its top three scorers enter the transfer portal, it fell Sunday to N.C. State, 65-62, in its first game since those exits. It was an encouraging performance, to be sure, even with all of the pain that comes with a loss.

But without junior standouts Xavier Johnson and Au’Diese Toney, two players who had been pillars of the program from the moment they became a part of it, what felt different about his group of players?

“I’m not sure much has been different,” Capel said.

As the Panthers entered that matchup with the Wolfpack at PNC Arena, the first of three contests to conclude the regular season, a question surrounded it, making this game one of their more intriguing in Capel’s time as coach.

Could Pitt rise about the turmoil and show that, maybe, it was better for everything that had transpired, unsettling as it may seem from the outside? Or would it have the look of an undermanned, beleaguered program that looked aimless without two players on whom it had leaned so much not just this season, but throughout Capel’s tenure?

The answer was something in the middle of those outcomes. In many ways, Pitt was both, looking like the latter in the first half and the former in the second. When put together, it was a one-possession loss against a streaking team that, at one point, looked as though it may run the Panthers (9-10, 5-9 ACC) out of the gym.

In a game in which possible results seemed endless, many of which were more on the gruesome end, it could have been much, much worse. In its best moments and in a comeback that ultimately fell short, it rewarded its coach’s outward confidence that remained even after his roster underwent such a drastic and potentially damaging makeover.

“I’ve said it over and over — I feel really, really positive and strong about the future of our program,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said. “We were doing this with young guys out there today. They put us in a position where we had a chance.”

Early on, the Panthers languished, struggling to shoot and connect on much of anything offensively. Without Johnson and Toney — two three-year starters who combined to average 28.6 points, 9.3 rebounds and eight assists per game — they looked lost. They made just seven of their 30 shots in the first half (23.3%), had 21 points on 32 first-half possessions and had just 14 points with 3:50 remaining, an unsightly number that highlighted what had been a difficult afternoon up to that point. Capel attributed those first-half woes to his team going without a game for more than a week. It wasn’t, he said, a product of acclimating to life without two of its best offensive threats.

Even as its offense recovered in the early minutes of the second half, Pitt still found itself chasing, trailing by 14 with 14:41 remaining after giving up a four-point play.

Eventually, though, its fortunes changed. Its offense kept the continuity and effectiveness it found early in the second half and its defense remained relatively stout. By doing so, and by staying within striking distance for much of the final 10 minutes, it showcased some of what made its eighth loss in its past nine games feel like something slightly less deflating.

Justin Champagnie finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds, giving him his 12th double-double of the season. He was also whistled for two technical fouls, one for a comment he made to an opponent and the other for slapping the backboard after a dunk.

More notably, and perhaps more surprisingly, several other players stepped up to try to fill the sizable void left by Johnson and Toney’s absence.

Freshman Femi Odukale, stepping into Johnson’s vacated role as the starting point guard, had a career-high 18 points and five assists (to just one turnover). Though he wasn’t replacing anyone who recently departed, senior center Terrell Brown pieced together his best game of the season, scoring 11 points and pulling down 11 rebounds in 33 minutes, all of which were season highs by a substantial margin. It was the first double-double of his four-year career. Nike Sibande, playing in Toney’s customary spot in the starting lineup, had nine points, five rebounds and three assists. He has scored 21 points in the past two games after scoring a combined 22 points in his first nine games this season.

“They didn’t really step up their game. They always had it in them,” Odukale said. “They were always ready to play. It was a perfect time to show what they’ve got.”

As the game progressed and Pitt’s newly assembled lineups got more time playing together, its fortunes improved.

Carried by those players, with Champagnie, Brown and Odukale accounting for 32 of their team’s 41 second-half points, the Panthers found their way back, getting within three, 52-49, after a 3-pointer from freshman William Jeffress with nine minutes remaining.

“Coach said ‘Just fight,’” Brown said. “It doesn’t matter what happened in the past with us. Right now, we’re here, so that’s the biggest game.”

They were never able to take that next step, though. And it was in those moments, with a chance to tie or take the lead, that many of Pitt’s most persistent problems this season reemerged. Perhaps, for all it had lost, the team wasn’t that different.

In the final 8:30, the Panthers had four of their 14 turnovers, the third time in the past four games they’ve had that many miscues, two of which came against an aggressive, opportunistic N.C. State (12-9, 8-8) press designed to create such havoc. On a day in which it made 19 of its 30 free throws (63.3%), five of those 11 misses came in the final three minutes.

With 1:02 left to play and the Panthers trailing by four, 60-56, Jeffress had a chance to get his team within two after he was fouled after rising up for an offensive rebound, but he missed both free throws. On Pitt’s next possession, when it could have cut its deficit from six to four, Sibande missed two free throws that came after an aggressive drive to the basket with 33 seconds remaining. It would never again get that close to tying the game or taking the lead, as the final three-point deficit was only that low because of a made Odukale jumper at the buzzer.

“We had a tough week with all that, but Coach still challenged us,” Brown said. “He believes and we believe in our goals and stuff. We lost, but he was proud of us. I was proud of the team and the guys. We fought. It was just mental lapses that killed us late.”

Pitt will have to regroup relatively quickly, with a game Tuesday against Wake Forest.

The departures of Johnson and Toney were not a surprise, Brown said, even as Odukale said they were. Whatever awkwardness or painful adjustments came in wake of those decisions, though, are now behind the Panthers. And that, along with the score of their first game without them, is a relief.

“I’m proud of them, man,” Capel said. “It’s been a long week.”

Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG

First Published: February 28, 2021, 11:40 p.m.