No. 3 Pittsburgh pulls away late to defeat Florida State Seminoles in basketball

TALLAHASSEE — Leonard Hamilton repeated the same message after nearly all of his young Florida State team's first 11 victories: He was thrilled the Seminoles were winning while learning.

On Sunday, the lesson came with a loss. Third-ranked Pittsburgh scored the game's final eight points to pull out a 56-48 nonconference victory.

"It was a real defensive struggle for both teams," Hamilton said. "But in the end, they took advantage of the opportunities that they had. And we had some opportunities that we just didn't finish."

Several opportunities on one possession, in fact. After Pitt senior Sam Young scored on a tip-in to give the Panthers a 50-48 lead with less than two minutes left, FSU had three consecutive shots at the basket.

All were off the mark, including an open 3-pointer by senior Toney Douglas that rimmed out.

"It was a good possession; we just missed shots," said Douglas, who led FSU with 20 points. "We had open looks. I could have sworn my shot was going in."

FSU shot 29.8 percent from the field and Pitt 33.3 percent. But while the Seminoles (11-2) missed their last seven shots, Pitt (12-0) connected on its last four.

FSU led by eight early in the second half, but the Panthers responded with a 17-0 run that saw the Seminoles go scoreless for more than seven minutes.

Douglas, FSU's lone senior starter, was the only Seminole in double figures. The other starters combined to shoot 4-of-22.

"They did a very good job of keeping us off balance on the offensive end," Hamilton said. "That's solved with experience. You've got to play through those games and gain some confidence."