December 21, 2008

Derek Redd, Osceola
Warchant.com

Game photos / Video highlights

Florida State men's basketball coach Leonard Hamilton feels his team has the pieces in place to become very good. On Sunday night, his young group ran into a Pittsburgh team whose pieces have been in place for a long time.

The Seminoles (11-2) led to start the second half and weathered a 17-point Panthers run to pull into a tie with 2:23 remaining. But the No. 3 Panthers (12-0) scored the game's final eight points to win 56-48 at the Donald L. Tucker Center.

Hamilton said those late runs are to be expected from a team that starts three seniors and a junior.

"That's what experienced, veteran talent and well-coached teams will do," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. "They finished their plays and we didn't. I can't fault our players' effort. I think we still could execute a little better and I think we still turned the ball over a little too much."

FSU, which started two freshmen and a sophomore Sunday and used another freshman and sophomore in its rotation, stuck with Pitt for most of the game despite a dismal shooting night. The Seminoles shot just 23.5 percent in the first half and 29.8 percent for the game. Yet they forced the Panthers (33.3 percent shooting) into the same offensive troubles.

The Seminoles finally got hot to start the first half, hitting their first four shots to take an eight-point lead. But Toney Douglas' 3-pointer with 15:33 remaining would be their last basket for nearly seven minutes. The Panthers led by as many as nine in the second half before Uche Echefu's jumper knotted the game at 48-48, but the Seminoles' shooting hands went cold again.

"We had open shots and we missed them," FSU guard Toney Douglas said. "When they needed big shots, they made their big shots. That was the game."

Douglas was the only Seminole to hit more than two shots from the floor Sunday night. The senior All-ACC candidate led FSU with 20 points, but was the only Florida State player in double digits. Sophomore Derwin Kitchen was the next closest with seven points.

"That could have been an issue, but I really don't think it was," Douglas said. "We have a lot of freshmen on the team, but they stepped up to the challenge tonight and we still competed with them. When (Pitt) needed a shot, they got it. We had open looks and it didn't fall for us."

The Panthers controlled the paint for most of the game. Pitt pulled down 17 offensive rebounds, scored 17 second-chance points to Florida State's five and scored 28 total points in the paint to FSU's 12. Sam Young led all scorers with 21 points, while former Tallahassee Community College standout Jermaine Dixon scored 11 and DeJuan Blair scored 10 with 12 rebounds.

"I thought our defense was good all the way through, and our numbers speak to that," Panthers coach Jamie Dixon said. "Early on, I thought they really had trouble with our quickness defensively and our intensity."

The Seminoles won't play again until they face Western Kentucky on December 28 at the Orange Bowl Classic in Sunrise, Fla.

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