Let's recap Kansas State's match-up with Pitt in the Fort Myers Tip-Off at K-StateOnline.

Kansas State had every opportunity to knock off Pitt and advance to the Finals of the Fort Myers classic Monday night, but a truly astonishing effort from the free throw line - just three makes on 13 attempts - proved too much for K-State to overcome in falling to the Panthers late, 63-59.

Here's a chronological look at the Wildcats' disappointing loss after twice holding 10-point leads in the first half.

Antonio Gordon knocked down a three on K-State's first offensive possession before Cartier Diarra went right and finished at the hoop on the next trip to go up 5-0. The two would combine for K-State's third hoop, a dish inside from Diarra to Gordon for a lay-in and a 7-0 start for the Cats. They also combined for the next basket, Diarra to Gordon, for a 9-0 start before Pitt took a timeout to try and stop the bleeding with 16:20 left in the first half.

Pitt would answer with consecutive hoops right out of the timeout to get on the board at 9-4 before then turning it over the next two trips. Another freshman Gordon, DaJuan Gordon, would miss on a run out, but Diarra was there again, this time to follow the miss and tip it in, and make it 11-4 in favor of the Cats. Pitt would switch to a zone after slicing the lead to 11-6 with an inside finish, and Levi Stockard would be called for a foul on an illegal screen the first possession against the zone. Transition worked better, though, as D. Gordon did get a finish on the run - after K-State forced another turnover - to help K-State lead 13-8 at the under-eight timeout.

The Cats turned Pitt over on the first possession out of the break, and Stockard was able to chip in a free throw for a 14-8 lead before a needless foul attempting to rebound the second attempt miss sent Makol Mawien to the bench with two fouls and 10:51 left in the first half. Stockard, like Mawien, picked up his second foul a possession later, putting two of K-State's three available bigs (Montavious Murphy was out due to injury) in early foul trouble before half-way mark of the first half even arrived. It wasn't even a minute later before A. Gordon, that third big, grabbed his second foul trying to take a charge. A D. Gordon 3-pointer, though, allowed K-State to hold a 17-10 edge with 7:40 left in the first half.

K-State's defense had utterly dominated to that point, turning Pitt over 10 times without the Panthers claiming a single assist. A second straight D. Gordon corner three made Pitt's problems worse, as it gave K-State a 20-10 lead. On the next trip, after a Pitt 15-footer, D. Gordon faked the same corner three and then blew by his defender for a nifty inside finish, although Pitt would answer with its first three on the next trip to slice K-State's lead to 22-15. D. Gordon continued to show a variety of moves, scoring yet again at the six-minute mark on a driving bank shot from the right elbow area.

Shaun Williams, who wasn't afraid to get shots up after ending his suspension in the closing minutes of last week's win, knocked down a 3-pointer on his first try in this one to put K-State back up 10, 27-17, at the under-four timeout.

That lead was short lived, however, as two quick Pitt hoops - one thanks to a Diarra turnover - quickly sliced the score to 27-21. Stockard would commit another K-State turnover the next Wildcat possession, and a 7-0 Pitt run was't stopped until Mike McGuirl knocked in a 3-pointer to make it 30-24 in favor the Cats. Sneed, another "big" option for K-State, picked up his second foul with 1:32 left in the first half.

Diarra missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw opportunity, leaving K-State unable to stretch the lead again after Pitt had trimmed the score to 30-26. With 35 seconds left Stockard fouled, sending Eric Hamilton to the line for Pitt. That was Stockard's third foul, forcing Pierson McAtee into the game. Both shots were made, and suddenly the 10-point lead was just two at 30-28. That would be the halftime score, with Pitt ending the first 20 minutes on an 11-3 run.

It did, at least, represent K-State's first halftime lead of the young season.

Pitt would tie the game at 30 with 19 minutes to play, but a beautiful dish inside from Sneed to Mawien for a jam put K-State back in front, immediately, at 32-30. Mawien, though, fouled again on the ensuing defensive possession, giving him three and sending him to the bench again. Stockard, who also had three, replaced him and scored on a pump fake and finish inside and a four-point lead. Two straight Pitt bank shot makes tied it again at 34, though, as K-State continued to fall short in its attempt to pull away early in the second half.

Sneed made one of two free throws right out of the under-16 timeout to put K-State back up a single point, but a follow jam by Pitt gave the Panthers a 36-35 lead - their first of the game - with just more than 15 minutes left to play. K-State tried to answer with an ally-oop to Sneed, who was fouled at the rim and sent to the line. Sneed missed both, though, leaving K-State just 2-of-8 from the line at this point. Pitt knocked in long two for its biggest lead at three before McGuirl answered with a key three to tie it up again. Diarra then splashed a 3-pointer in rhythm on the next trip to give K-State the lead back at 41-38.

Sneed, with just a single point, picked up his third foul at the 12:53 mark, leaving both Sneed and Mawien on the bench for an easy Pitt drive to the basket and hoop to make it 41-40. An offensive board and dunk inside had Pitt back in front at 42-41, then Stockard traveled to continue K-State's struggles heading into the under-12 timeout.

Mawien re-entered with just less than 12 minutes to play and immediately swatted away a Pitt driving attempt at the basket. The senior big then took a pass inside, made a number of moves and flipped it in with his left hand to put K-State back up 43-42. Unfortunately for K-State, though, Mawien quickly picked up his fourth foul and headed straight back to the bench. Making matters worse, Pitt then hit a jumper the same possession to go back in front.

Diarra wouldn't let K-State get in too much trouble, knocking in yet another 3-pointer to regain the edge for the Cats before Pitt answered with a drive and tied things, again, at 46, where it stood at the under-eight timeout, as well.

Pitt made a free throw to go back up at 47-46, before Sneed - who had just one point entering the possession - hit his first field goal to give the Cats a brief one-point edge; Pitt answered back with a beautiful pass inside for an easy dunk. Williams made another big triple, his second of the game, after McGuirl took a charge to get the ball back for K-State. Williams' step back, after he got the defender to jump with a pump fake, had K-State up 51-49 with five-and-a-half minutes to play.

Two more Pitt free throws - an area where the Panthers really out-performed K-State - tied the contest once more at 51. Sneed hit the side of the backboard on a corner three try, then gave up a layup in front of him in transition to see Pitt regain the lead. Sneed then, to his credit, threw a fantastic pass inside to D. Gordon, who simply blew an easy finish inside before making matters worse by fouling and putting Pitt back at the line, where the Panthers would knock in both for their biggest lead of the game at 55-51.

K-State kept fouling, doing so attempting to rebound a Stockard miss, and Pitt kept knocking in free throws. Two more made it 57-51 Pitt, and also had the Panthers 14-of-17 at the foul line compared to just 2-of-8 for K-State. That six-point deficit, again Pitt's biggest lead of the game, is where things sat at the under-four timeout.

Diarra missed the front end of a one-and-one, badly, to continue to K-State's major struggles at the foul line (2-of-9 at this point). On that miss, K-State had made just 13 of 40 (32. percent) of combined free-throw and two-point attempts.

The Cats would chase down the miss, however, and Sneed picked a great time to hit his first three of the game. As bad as K-State had shot inside and from the charity stripe, Sneed's three left K-State 10-of-20 from deep in the game. A Diarra steal and finish then had K-State back within a point at 57-56 in the blink of an eye, with more than three minutes still left to play.

K-State's defense forced a turnover on the next possession, and Sneed scored again - this time driving inside - to make it a 7-0 spurt at put the Cats back up one. The next defensive possession created another Pitt turnover, but then Mawien was called for an offensive foul - his fifth of the game - to eliminate him from the contest for the final two minutes. It also, of course, gave Pitt the ball back down just one.

K-State's defense continued to dominate, though. Diarra stole the ball from McGowens (third turnover in three possessions), and the junior guard finally found some success at the foul line for K-State. The play would foul McGowens out of the game, but Diarra would - stunningly - miss the front end again to leave K-State just 2-of-10 from the foul line.

Pitt couldn't even draw iron on its next possession, the fourth straight defensive trip where the Panthers didn't have a shot hit the rim. Sneed couldn't get a driving attempt to go with 40 seconds left, but K-State did grab a key offensive rebound after the miss. Sneed missed again, this time open from 17 feet, but Stockard grabbed another key offensive rebound before he was fouled.

Stockard marched to the free throw line to shoot with 23.4 seconds left (and K-State just 20 percent from the line on 10 attempts), and the junior big missed another crucial front end at the free throw line. Pitt came down and scored to regain the lead late, and Diarra was called for an offensive foul at the other end with 5.1 seconds left to give the Panthers possession once again.

Xavier Johnson, a 57 percent foul shooter, was sent to the stripe, and he calmly made both. Pitt wisely fouled K-State, not allowing the Wildcats a chance for a tying triple. Diarra made the first and intentionally missed the second down two points with 1.5 seconds remaining, but the Cats could not corral the offensive rebound. Pitt was sent back to the line with 0.1 seconds left to provide the game's final scoring.

Shooting was bizarre. K-State goes 10-of-20 from 3-point range, outscoring Pitt by 27 from behind the arc. Pitt goes 21-of-31, 67.7 percent on twos (compared to 13-of-38, 34.2 percent ) outscoring K-State by 16. Pitt goes 18-of-21, 85.7 percent on free throws (compared to 3-of-13, 21.1 percent for K-State) outscoring K-State by 15 on free throws.

K-State won turnovers by 10 percent, but lost offensive boarding by seven percent and FT rate by 22 percent. K-State's defense was solid, but you can't allow nearly 70 percent on twos nor foul that much.

Pitt is likely going to be an average ACC team; this is a game that an NCAA tournament team should win.

K-State can't have inefficient games from its best three players and beat decent competition. Diarra and Sneed combine to go 8-of-17 on FGs, 3-of-9 on threes and 2-of-9 from the FT line. That is simply unacceptable.

Mawien can't stay out of foul trouble and plays 11 minutes. Stockard is forced to play 29 and puts up a offensive rating under 0.40 and a negative PER. This team really missed Murphy, and this type of production from Stockard isn't sustainable without Murphy available. McGuirl did a lot of nice things, but he's not going to carry the team. D Gordon had a great first half, but ran out of gas in the second. Williams was a nice spark off the bench and seems to be the option in place of David Sloan.

Regardless, it all goes back to Diarra and Sneed; this team will go as far as they take it, and they simply didn't produce enough tonight.

First, K-State played hard. The Cats didn’t always play smart, and it wasn’t always pretty, but they battled. The Wildcats forced turnovers on three of Pitt’s first four possessions. Cartier Diarra ran the floor hard to tip in a DaJuan Gordon miss in transition. After a deflection, D. Gordon and Diarra continued to pursue the basketball in the backcourt nearly forcing a turnover. Shaun Williams forced a couple of turnovers due to fighting hard over a screen and good on-ball defense.

K-State was the aggressor early in the game on both ends, including forcing the pace both off of Pitt turnovers and missed shots. K-State’s first basket of the game was a transition three from Antonio Gordon off of a Pitt turnover, and shortly later, after a Pitt missed three, Diarra found A. Gordon again in transition for an easy lay in. This aggression also forced a number of early fouls on Pitt, which enabled K-State to get into the bonus with over 10 minutes to play in the first half. However, the Wildcats failed to take advantage, as they only shot two free throws the rest of the half with both of those being missed front ends of one and ones.

The Wildcats failed to react appropriately the two times in the first half that Pitt changed defenses. The first came when Pitt went to a 2-3 zone around the 14 minute mark. K-States struggles against the zone initially were due more to not being able to finish plays than poor execution. D. Gordon and Xavier Sneed both made good hard cuts to the high post and made nice dump down passes, but both Levi Stockard and A. Gordon were unable to finish. K-State later found success against the zone by using ball screens on the guard defenders. This forced Pitt’s bottom defender to come out on the wing to help leaving the corner and baseline open for D. Gordon.

The second stretch came at the 3:30 mark, when Pitt switched back to a man defense. K-State was leading 27-19 at the time, but turned it over four of their next five possessions. K-State did not make good decisions during this stretch, as guys were trying to make plays that were not there. Not only did this undue most of the good work K-State had done during the half, but it gave Pitt some much needed confidence offensively which carried over to the second half.

In comparison to the first half, the game was played almost entirely in the half court during the second half, which favored Pitt. K-State was unable to consistently generate offense, but did make just enough threes to keep the Cats afloat. Mike McGuirl, Diarra, and Williams all hit threes to either tie the game or give the Wildcats the lead back.

With the score tied at 51 with 5:30 to play, Pitt went back to a zone defense, and K-State had two empty possessions that at the time that looked like might ultimately do them in. Again, neither possession was to poor execution against a zone, but instead not finishing plays. On the first, K-State quickly swung the ball and got an open corner three for Sneed that he missed. On the second, D. Gordon made another great cut along the baseline, but blew the layup.

The game ended just like it began, with K-State making a ton of effort plays. A. Gordon got an offensive rebound off of another missed free throw, which led to a Sneed three. The Wildcats forced turnovers on Pitt’s next four possessions, and then forced them into an incredibly difficult shot at the end of the shot clock on the fifth.

Offensively, K-State had two good possessions in the final minute that ended with Xavier Sneed making good decisions. Instead of settling for a difficult three, Sneed kept his dribble alive and got all the way to the rim. After a hustle play from Diarra gave K-State another possession, Sneed once again did not settle for a three and dribbled into an open two. Unfortunately, he was not able to finish either play.

In the end, all of the good things K-State did from an effort standpoint were all for not because, the Wildcats could not make free throws. It is hard for a 3-of-13 performance from the line to be actually worse than the numbers show, but it was - as many of those were front ends of one and ones.

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