Florida State holds off Georgia State 62-57

ATLANTA - Florida State senior Toney Douglas was born and raised in Atlanta, but swore there was no special motivation about Saturday's game against Georgia State. His performance betrayed his words.

Douglas, playing in front of his own cheering section that included his brother, Atlanta Falcons receiver Harry Douglas, scored 23 points to lead the Seminoles to a 62-57 win.

"I try to take every game one at a time, so I didn't really think about this one until after we beat Florida," Douglas said. "Everybody asks me that, but I'm serious."

Douglas, who graduated from Jonesboro High School in Atlanta's southern suburbs, made 7 of 13 field goal attempts, including three 3-pointers. Douglas now has 1,608 career points, 1,083 of them at Florida State, and ranks 31st on the school's career list. Just as important was his floor direction; Douglas had only one turnover in 37 minutes.

"Douglas is a player," said Georgia State coach Rod Barnes. "He showed great leadership late in the game. He didn't panic when we tried to get them to turn it over."

Florida State (9-1) led by 19 with 13:12 left, only to lose the momentum and allow Georgia State (3-6) to fight its way back into the game. Georgia State's Leonard Mendez missed a 3-pointer with five seconds left that would have tied the game at 60.

The rebound was grabbed in traffic by Derwin Kitchen, who was playing his first game since becoming eligible after transferring from Iowa Western Community College. Kitchen then hit two free throws to seal the victory.

"We had that 19-point lead and I started substituting, because we're going to need those guys, and we lost our rhythm," said Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton. "I'm just thankful we were able to win while going through the learning process."

The win gives Florida State its best start since 2003-04, when the Seminoles began the season 10-0. It's the seventh time Florida State has started the season 9-1 or better.

Georgia State was led by sophomore Trae Goldston, who scored a career high 24 points and made four 3-pointers. Joe Dukes added 12 points and Trey Hampton scored 10 for the Panthers, now 0-21 against active Atlantic Coast Conference teams.

Florida State led 30-25 at halftime and seemed to put the game out of reach in the second half with a pair of 10-0 runs that gave the Seminoles a 51-32 lead with 13:12 left.

That's when Georgia State started its unlikely comeback. It began with Trey Hampton's 3-pointer and continued as Goldston hit a 3-pointer and twice converted three free throws when being fouled while shooting a 3-pointer.

Georgia State's Joe Dukes made it 58-57 with a 3-pointer as the shot clock was about to expire, then Florida State's Luke Louks hit a pair of free throws to give the Seminoles a 60-57 lead with 19.1 seconds left.

Georgia State worked the ball to Mendez, an all-Colonial Athletic Association guard, who hit the rim on his attempt. FSU's Derwin Kitchen grabbed the rebound, was fouled and made two free throws to seal the win.

"We never gave up," Barnes said. "It was very disappointing to get down by that many, but they executed the game plan, especially on offense. The defense had four or five minutes in both halves where we didn't defend as well as we have been."