PITTSBURGH — Even as the losses mounted during a brutal opening stretch to start conference, N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried kept telling his players the Wolfpack were a good team regardless of what the scoreboard said.

For once, Gottfried and the scoreboard found a way to agree.

Anthony Barber bounced back from his worst game of the season to score 31 points and N.C. State stunned Pittsburgh 78-61 on Tuesday night.

“Our guys have been battling but we do need some confidence,” Gottfried said. “Winning changes the way you feel about yourself.”

Barber, held to nine points in a loss to North Carolina last Saturday, made 8 of 18 shots and all 14 of his free throws while adding seven rebounds and eight assists.

Abdul Malik-Abu had 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Wolfpack (11-8, 1-5 ACC), who ended a five-game losing streak by building a 28-point first half lead and withstanding a push by the Panthers.

“I think in the beginning of the game we were just locked in and it carried us,” Barber said.

On the road in a place typically not hospitable to visitors, N.C. State simply put it on the Panthers.

Jamel Artis led Pitt (15-3, 4-2) with 16 points and Michael Young added 14 but Pitt was never really in it.

The Panthers fell behind by 10 in the first eight minutes and never got closer the rest of the way.

“They came out ready,” Young said. “They was 0-4, 0-5 and we came out on the opposite end of that. We came out lackadaisical and not ready to play.”

Something painfully obvious to Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon.

“This can’t happen and we haven’t had something to this degree,” Dixon said. “We got what we deserved by our performance.”

N.C. State had little trouble getting whatever it wanted early against the Panthers, who have molded themselves into an efficient offensive machine since making the switch from the Big East to the ACC three years ago. Pitt came in third in the conference in scoring and fourth in shooting.