First Four: Pittsburgh advances to round of 64 with thrilling victory over Mississippi State

The Bulldogs had three chances to reclaim the lead, but Guillermo Dias Graham swatted Tolu Smith’s shot out of bounds, Shakeel Moore missed a wide-open 3-pointer from the corner and D.J. Jefferies put-back attempt was off the mark.

That means coach Jeff Capel’s Panthers are headed to Greensboro, N.C., to play No. 6 seed Iowa State on Friday.

“Well first and foremost, what a great college basketball game in an amazing atmosphere,” Capel said. “I want to give a big-time thank you to the fans here in Dayton. You can see that they love basketball. Really want to give a huge shout out to our fans that made the trek here to Dayton. We felt them. They gave us energy when we were a little bit tired. I thought they willed that shot, those last two shots from Mississippi State not to go in.”

The nightcap Tuesday was a thriller from start to finish as the teams traded the lead 21 times and were tied nine times.

Neither team led by more than six, but they traded 7-0 runs in the final five minutes.

After Pitt opened up a 58-52 lead with three minutes to go, MSU stormed back to go ahead 59-58 on Smith’s layup with 32 seconds left.

That set the stage for Burton’s heroics.

“When I had the ball in my hands the last 30 seconds or so, I just told myself I was built for it, and I just got to a spot and let it go, and I had complete confidence in myself,” said Burton, who scored six points. “That was pretty much everything that went down.”

Nelly Smith led Pitt with 15 points while Greg Elliott had 13, Blake Hinson scored 12 and Miami transfer Nike Sibande pitched in 11 for Pitt.

Dashawn Davis led Mississippi State with 15 points while Moore had 14 and Smith had 13.

The First Four continues Wednesday with two more games: 16 seeds Texas Southern and Fairleigh Dickinson play in the first game at 6:40 p.m. with No. 11s Arizona State and Nevada to follow.