Florida State has a well-deserved reputation for being one of the best teams in the country at winning close games.

The Seminoles are 7-2 in one-possession contests this season, and they recently set an NCAA record for most consecutive victories in overtime games with 13. So even during a disappointing campaign, which has been plagued by one injury after another, Leonard Hamilton's team almost always performs well in the most pressure-packed situations.

But Saturday night's one-point, buzzer-beating, heart-stopping win at Virginia might have been the most incredible yet.

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Virginia led for nearly the entire game, and the Cavaliers were out in front by nine points with just over 2 minutes remaining. Not only that, but the Seminoles were once again playing without four injured starters -- guards Caleb Mills and Anthony Polite, forward Malik Osborne and center Naheem McLeod.

The Seminoles also have very little left to play for this regular season, while the Cavs are desperately trying to improve their resume for the NCAA Tournament. And Saturday also happened to be Virginia's Senior Day and its last home game of the season.

Yet somehow, despite all of those factors, FSU outscored the Cavaliers by 10 points in the final 2:06 to pull out a stunning 64-63 victory in Charlottesville, Va.

Before we go any further, let's take a look at four keys to the Seminoles’ late comeback:

Scoring quickly -- Virginia is usually very good at stopping transition opportunities, and Tony Bennett's pack-line defense also makes it difficult to score quickly in the half-court. On top of that, the Cavaliers typically are very deliberate on offense. So the combination of all those factors makes it extremely difficult for opponents to chip away at deficits quickly. But the Seminoles did just that on Saturday. Their final six scoring possessions averaged just over seven seconds apiece -- they went for 13, 5, 8, 9, 7 and 1 seconds. Those are incredibly quick scores against any opponent, but almost inconceivable against Virginia.

Making tough shots -- FSU's coaches deserve a lot of credit for this win. Not only did they manage to get the team focused and energized after a dismal performance Monday at Boston College, but they drew up several very nice plays, including the eventual game-winner. Yet all the best-designed plays in the world don't lead to a win if players can't put the ball in the basket, and the 'Noles made a bunch of really tough shots to simply give themselves a chance of winning this game. Literally every single shot FSU hit in the final two-plus minutes -- all six of them -- came with a high degree of difficulty. Not a single one was a gimme. And if the 'Noles had missed any of them, they likely lose the game. They hit them all.

Seizing on UVA mistakes -- This obviously isn't one of Tony Bennett's better squads. Instead of racing toward the postseason as one of the elite teams in the nation, this group might have seen its NCAA Tournament bubble burst on Saturday. Even so, it was surprising to see how many mistakes the Cavaliers made in a game that was vital to their postseason chances. They had several defensive lapses down the stretch, which is what helped FSU get off so many quick shots. They also had a few really poor offensive possessions, which either ended in turnovers or forced jump shots. And they also missed some huge free throws. That's not to take anything away from Florida State. The Seminoles definitely deserve credit for putting the Cavs in high-pressure situations, which can often lead to mistakes, but it likely would have been impossible for FSU to win if Bennett's team had played with its typical composure at home.

A beautiful final play -- You can watch Florida State's game-winning play 20 times and probably find something else special after each viewing. There's Harrison Prieto creating space to get off his long pass, and then delivering a perfect strike. There's Matthew Cleveland catching it with his back to the basket, turning and hitting an off-balance 3-pointer from about 30 feet. There's Leonard Hamilton's cold-as-ice reaction, just turning to go and shake hands with the Virginia staff instead of celebrating like all of his players and assistants. And there's Prieto racing to hug associate head coach Stan Jones, who typically draws up FSU's plays in end-game situations.

As mentioned earlier, this has been a grueling and sometimes miserable season for this FSU men's basketball team. In January, the Seminoles were leading the conference and had won six straight games. Coming into this weekend, they had lost eight of their last nine games ... and several of their best players to injury.

But this was a night the Seminoles won't soon forget.

And since there's no telling how many more opportunities they'll get to celebrate before this season comes to an end, I thought we should take a closer look at each of the final plays that led to FSU's improbable, incredible victory Saturday night.

We'll begin right after Virginia takes a 59-50 lead on a step-back 3-pointer by Armaan Franklin with 2:15 remaining.

At this point, Florida State had scored 21 points in the first 17 minutes and 45 seconds of the second half. The Seminoles would somehow score 14 points in the final 126 seconds.

Here's how they did it:

After FSU races up the court following Frankin's 3-pointer, Jalen Warley fakes a pass inside, which draws Matthew Cleveland's defender into the paint to help. Cleveland is now wide open on the left wing, and after he receives a pass from Warley, he drives to his left and hits an off-balance, 10-foot jumper to make it 59-52 with 2:06 remaining. (FSU desperately needed to answer quickly, and Cleveland did just that.)

After Virginia inbounds the ball, FSU maintains its aggressive full-court defensive pressure, and Franklin throws a pass out of bounds, giving the Seminoles possession with 1:58 remaining. Warley gets open thanks to a John Butler screen and catches the inbounds pass from Cleveland. He then drives into the middle of the paint and banks in a floater to make it 59-54 with 1:53 left. (It's worth noting that all three players involved in this play are freshmen who have been forced into major roles because of injuries.)

On the ensuing possession, Virginia's Jayden Gardner is fouled by Warley with 1:33 left. Gardner is an 81-percent free-throw shooter, but he misses one of two. So that only pushes the Cavs' lead to 60-54. (This was Gardner's only miss in eight free throws on the night.)

Trailing by six points, FSU again scores very quickly. RayQuan Evans brings the ball up the left side of the court, receives a ball-screen from Prieto and drives around to the right side of the basket, where he hits a running one-hander over a leaping shot-block attempt by 6-8 Kody Stattmann. This makes the score 60-56 with 1:25 left.

Virginia then responds with a puzzling possession that ends with Gardner forcing a long, contested jumper with 11 seconds left on the shot clock and 1:00 remaining in the game. Gardner's teammates had spread out around the perimeter, all outside the 3-point line, which should have given him an opportunity to drive to the basket and score or draw a foul. But Gardner does neither, and his 18-footer is contested by Evans and falls off the mark.

Butler then grabs the ensuing rebound, and FSU fires quickly again. This time, it is Cleveland attacking the paint, and he scores on a very impressive move that draws a foul and an "and-one" opportunity. After getting a ball-screen from Prieto, Cleveland attacks the paint from left to right and uses a jump-stop to square up to the basket. If Cleveland immediately rises to shoot a floater after the jump, he might not draw any contact. But he shows the ball with a little shot-fake, draws a swipe from Virginia's Reece Beekman, then squares up and buries the short jumper. He then hits the free throw to make it 60-59 with 45 seconds remaining. (Cleveland, by the way, is a 56.6-percent free-throw shooter and had made only 2 of his first 6 attempts in this game. He finished 3 of 7.)

Then comes one of the wildest plays of the game.

After Virginia runs about 25 seconds off the clock, senior point guard Kihei Clark drives from the left wing to the free-throw line and has the ball tipped out of his control by FSU's Warley. RayQuan Evans then comes off of his man and deflects the ball out toward halfcourt, where John Butler dives for it as Clark spins it back to the middle of the floor. Warley then dives on the loose ball as the game clock dwindles down to 18 seconds. But when he tries to throw an outlet pass to Butler, the pass comes up short, allowing Virginia's Franklin to intercept it and get fouled. (If that play had taken just a couple seconds longer, it would have been a shot-clock violation on UVA. Instead, the Cavaliers were going to the line with 14.7 seconds remaining and a chance to make it a three-point game.)

Franklin, a 75-percent free-throw shooter, makes only one of two, however, to push the score to 61-59. Cleveland then grabs the rebound of the missed free throw and dribbles up the left side of the court. After getting a quick ball-screen from Prieto, Cleveland drives to his right, catches the Cavaliers in a switch and looks to take 6-11 forward Kadin Shedrick off the dribble. (It's impossible to overstate the level of difficulty of the shot Cleveland ends up taking.) Shedrick hammers Cleveland as he's throwing up a running one-hander, but no foul is called. Before he can come crashing to the ground, Cleveland tosses his shot high off the backboard with incredible touch and just the right amount of backspin, and it falls sweetly through the net. The game is now tied at 61.

(Seriously, this is a criminal no-call. Shedrick clubs Cleveland with his left arm and sends him sprawling, right in front of a referee. If the shot misses and Virginia gets the rebound, the Seminoles would have to foul immediately and the game could essentially be over. Swallowing the whistle there is ridiculous, but unfortunately par for the course for college basketball officials.)

After Virginia calls a timeout with 6.3 seconds remaining, FSU makes maybe its only real mistake in the final two minutes. While trying to keep the ball out of speedy point guard Kihei Clark's hands, the Seminoles lose track of Franklin, who inbounded the ball to Shedrick. Franklin quickly gets the ball back and races down the middle of the court, where he hits a contested jumper just beyond the free-throw line. In the blink of an eye, Virginia reclaims the lead and seemingly the win. (The clock operator originally showed the time remaining as 0.4 seconds, but the officials would later reset it to 1.0 seconds with the Cavs on top, 63-61.)

Florida State calls timeout to draw up a final play, but it's the most dire of circumstances; the Seminoles will have to inbound the ball and go the length of the court in just one second. The good news is the person inbounding will be able to run the baseline before passing it in because it's coming after a made basket; the bad news is whoever catches that pass will have to shoot immediately. There will be no time for dribbling or anything else.

FSU tasks Prieto, a sixth-year senior walk-on, with inbounding the ball. He starts on one side of the basket, then shuffles to the other in an effort to create separation from the 6-11 Shedrick, who is trying to obstruct his vision and alter the pass. Warley tries to set a screen to help buy more time for Prieto, but Shedrick runs by him and leaps just as Prieto cocks back his arm. If Prieto lets go of the pass right then, there's no way he hits his target. But he smartly waits for gravity to bring Shedrick back to the court, then launches a strike to Cleveland, who is about 10 feet outside of 3-point range on the left wing. Cleveland makes the difficult catch while leaping backward, spins to his left and fires up what looks like a prayer as the shot clock expires. And the ball touches nothing but net.

Ball game.

Florida State 64, Virginia 63.

Contact managing editor Ira Schoffel at ira@warchant.com and follow @IraSchoffel on Twitter.

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