NEW YORK — With a two-point lead and St. Louis able to hold for the final shot, Pittsburgh coach Jeff Capel gave his team clear instructions during a timeout with 18 seconds left: If Hasahn French touches the ball, foul St. Louis’ poorest free throw shooter.

French — who is 12.5 percent from the free-throw line this season — had a chance to tie the game with 4.9 seconds left and his team down two. But he airballed the first shot of a one-and-one, and Pitt beat St. Louis 75-73 on Wednesday.

“We’ve worked on game situations, different things, but we hadn’t worked on that one exactly,” Capel said. “For them to take that out on the court and to execute it perfectly was really good, and then for us to step up and make the free throws was really good.”

It was a back-and-forth game with 15 ties and 12 lead changes before Pitt took the lead for good on Xavier Johnson’s layup with 1:19 left. He hit a pair of free throws with 4 seconds left to keep the Panthers undefeated at 6-0. Johnson finished with 20 points after just three points in the first half due to foul trouble.

Malik Ellison and Sidy N’Dir both scored 13 points for the Panthers. St. Louis fell to 4-1 on the year.