Kenny Pickett scored three touchdowns and No. 15 Pittsburgh finally put the clamps on No. 16 Wake Forest's offense in a 45-21 victory in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game Saturday night in Charlotte, N.C.

The Panthers (11-2) won their first ACC title in their second appearance in the championship game.

Pickett threw for 253 yards, completing 20 of 32 passes. Jordan Addison had eight catches for 126 yards.

"It means the world to us to come here and be ACC champions," said coach Pat Narduzzi. "This championship means everything. When I took this job, I took this job because I knew we could win a championship."

Israel Abanikanda scored on two touchdown runs in a four-minute span of the second half for the Panthers.

Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman was intercepted four times, including three times in the second half. Pittsburgh scored touchdowns after each of the first two of those turnovers on Abanikanda runs of 12 and 1 yards, and then Erick Hallett returned the next pickoff 19 yards for a touchdown.

In a stretch of slightly more than four minutes, Pittsburgh's lead swelled from 24-21 to 45-21.

Wake Forest (10-3) was third nationally in scoring with 42.9 points per game before being stymied across the last three quarters. Pittsburgh had posted 42.8 points per game before this weekend.

"Obviously after the first quarter we really didn't execute very well on offense. We had too many turnovers. I don't think we tackled as well as we needed to on defense. But when you play a good football team, a lot of times they're responsible for that," said Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson.

"I thought our defense certainly played well enough for us to win if we play our typical offensive game, but with, again, the turnovers and the short fields off of the punt returns, it wasn't enough," he said.

Pickett opened the game's scoring on a 58-yard touchdown run just 78 seconds into the game. He threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Rodney Hammond about four minutes later. That scoring pass gave him 80 touchdown throws in his career, breaking a tie with Dan Marino for the Pittsburgh school record.

Pickett's 4-yard scoring pass to Jared Wayne was the only second-quarter touchdown.

Pittsburgh went up 24-21 on Sam Scarton's 41-yard field goal on the last play of the first half.

Wake Forest scored touchdowns on its first three possessions and led 21-14 by the end of the first quarter. Hartman threw five yards to A.T. Perry, ran for an 11-yard touchdown and threw 26 yards to Taylor Morin.

After that, it became rough for the Demon Deacons. Hartman was also intercepted four times last December in the same stadium in a bowl loss to Wisconsin.

Wake Forest was trying for its third ACC title and its second since the championship game format was implemented. The Demon Deacons defeated Georgia Tech in the 2006 title game.

--Field Level Media