Coming off its most lopsided loss of the season, the Florida State men's basketball team needed a response.

That's just what it got Wednesday night vs. Pitt, setting the tone defensively in the first half and then exploding offensively in the second half. The Seminoles (12-5, 3-3 in ACC) came away with their best win of the season at the Tucker Civic Center, handing the Panthers (12-5, 3-3) an 82-70 loss.

"Overall, I think we showed some growth and maturity just in the way we responded from the Clemson game when we know we didn't play up to our abilities..." FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said after the win. "We didn't get quicker or faster or stronger, but I thought we had a mind shift."

After a slow offensive start, FSU extended its lead to as many as 16 points midway through the second half. Pitt came charging back with a three-point barrage, cutting the deficit to as little as five points. But the Seminoles never let the Panthers all the way back into the game, making 28 of their 33 free throws (84.8%) to keep Pitt at arm's length.

Jamir Watkins and Malique Ewin led the way for the Seminoles with 26 and 18 points, respectively, marking the 14th straight time that each of them has scored in double figures. Ewin added 13 rebounds for his third straight double-double and fifth of the season. Watkins, somewhat limited in minutes by foul trouble, also had eight rebounds, an assist and a steal and iced the game with 13 points over the final five minutes (nine of which came at the free-throw line) to tally his sixth 20-point game of the season.

Former Seminole Cam Corhen, in his return to Tallahassee, was held in check by FSU. He entered Wednesday's game averaging 10.9 points and 5.8 rebounds, but was held to two points on 0 of 3 shooting with seven rebounds, two turnovers and four fouls.

The win is the first Q1/Q2 victory of the season for the Seminoles, a resume-boosting win that FSU badly needed.

From the onset of Wednesday evening's game, FSU brought a high level of intensity at the defensive end, abandoning its usual strategy of switching on every screen.

The Panthers -- who entered the game averaging 10.2 turnovers per game -- committed four turnovers in the first three minutes and had committed what was already a season-high 14 turnovers by halftime.

Pitt leading scorer Jaland Lowe, who was averaging 17.2 points per game entering Wednesday, finished the first half with just two points on a pair of free throws and a career-high six turnovers.

Pitt also shot just 27.3% from the floor in the first half. However, FSU managed to build just a 28-23 halftime advantage because it also struggled to shot, hitting 27.6% of its shots over the opening 20 minutes.

The Panthers finished with 17 turnovers and while Lowe finished with 22 points, he also committed eight turnovers, four more than he had in any previous game of his collegiate career.

Pretty early in the second half, it looked like FSU's inability to build a larger lead in the first half was going to prove costly. Within a minute of the second half starting, the Panthers had cut the five-point deficit down to one.

But then FSU -- more specifically Ewin -- responded in a big way. After the starting center had just three first-half points, he exploded for 10 points in a matter of six FSU possessions, almost single-handedly spurring a 12-2 run to extend the lead.

For as bad as the Seminoles' shooting was in the first half, it was much improved after halftime. FSU shot 59.3% from the floor in the second half (16 of 27).

Pitt also shot better over the final 20 minutes, hitting 44.1% of its second-half shots including 7 of 13 from three-point range.

At the conclusion of what was a physical and testy game throughout, emotions bubbled over when Ewin dunked at the buzzer. Pitt took exception during the postgame handshake line and came over into FSU's bench area with multiple players from both teams and coaches on Pitt's staff needing to be held back.

Pitt head coach Jeff Capel was seen on the broadcast angle putting his hands on FSU freshman Alier Maluk after he came between the coach and the scuffle to try and prevent things from escalating.

Capel did not comment on the postgame situation in his brief postgame press conference.

"I don't know what happened in the skirmish at the end of the game. I wasn't down there. I was shaking some of their players' hands. So I can't comment on anything I didn't see," Hamilton said. "All I know is there was a lot of commotion going on. Like we always do, we always handle things. Those of you that have covered our program know we don't have issues like this. However we're supposed to deal with it, it'll be dealt with correctly."

FSU stays at home this weekend to face Georgia Tech (8-8, 2-3) Saturday at noon on ESPNU.