There's no sugar-coating it: Pittsburgh's 2016-17 season has been rough.

But the Panthers went a long way to smoothing things out Saturday at the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh grabbed a first-half lead against No. 17 Florida State with 8:23 remaining and never looked back en route to an 80-66 upset of the Seminoles, who continue to struggle mightily on the road.

Pitt forward Sheldon Jeter, who came into the game averaging just 7.6 points per game, led the Panthers (15-12, 4-10 ACC) with 29 points on 12-of-14 shooting from the field as well as a team-high eight rebounds.

Guard Jamel Artis added 16 points for the Panthers, who also got 10 points from guard Cameron Johnson.

The victory made Pitt coach Kevin Stallings a happy man -- after we was very unhappy following Tuesday's loss against Virginia Tech.

"I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if we had gotten hammered today," said Stallings, who team led by 11 points at halftime against Virginia Tech but lost 66-63. "That's why my level of frustration was the way it was after that game (against Virginia Tech). We responded, we came back and we played with great urgency for all forty minutes."

Florida State (21-6, 9-5), which is 2-5 on the road in the ACC this season, was led by junior guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes, who scored 12 points to go along with six assists. All six of the Seminoles' losses this year have come on the road.

But the story for Florida State on Saturday was the struggles of star guard Dwayne Bacon.

For the first time in his Florida State career, Bacon was held scoreless, going 0 of 4 from the floor. It was also the first time in 35 games that Bacon did not score in double digits. He came into the game 11 points shy of 1,000 for his career -- and that's right where he stayed.

The win marked the Panthers' third in the last four games, which was preceded by an eight-game losing streak.

Florida State, after starting the season with a 16-1 record, is just 5-5 in its last 10 games. And all five of their ACC losses have come by double digits.

The Seminoles just couldn't stop Jeter on Saturday.

"We decided enough was enough,"Jeter said of the team's recent struggles. "Let’s really fight for 40 minutes. And that's what we did."

Florida State is 1 1/2 games behind first-place North Carolina for the lead in the ACC. The Tar Heels played later Saturday night.

"I thought that Pittsburgh had a tremendous game plan of neutralizing our big guys by spreading the floor and a very good job of handling the ball, being very careful with their execution," Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. "I felt very fortunate we were only down five at halftime."

Even with the win, Pittsburgh remains in the bottom half of the standings, moving into a tie with Clemson for 12th in the conference.

With 6:19 remaining, Florida State went on a 14-3 run to cut Pittsburgh's lead to two points.

After Florida State started the second half with a basket, Pitt went on an 8-0 run for its first double-digit lead of the game. The Panthers went on to take a 58-43 lead with 14:13 remaining.

Pitt headed to the locker room with a slim 41-37 lead over Florida State after a competitive first half. Neither team had a lead larger than six points.

Florida State trailed despite shooting 60 percent from the field. Pitt, meanwhile, shot 48.3 percent in the opening half.

Both teams' leading scorers -- Bacon and ACC leading scorer Michael Young -- had minimal impacts early on. Bacon went into the half with no points, and Young had just two points for Pitt but finished with 11.

Jeter and Pitt guard Jamel Artis made up for Young's early struggles, scoring 11 and 10 points, respectively, in the first 20 minutes.

Center Michael Ojo and Rathan-Mayes both had eight points, leading the Seminoles at the half. Forward Jonathan Isaac added 11 points in the loss for Florida State, while guard Terance Mann chipped in 10 points.

Pitt improves to 2-5 this season against Top 25 opponents. The Panthers have a lopsided lead on the Seminoles in their all-time series at 12-3.

NOTES: Pitt players wore retro jerseys for the game. ... ESPN college basketball announcer Dick Vitale made a case recently for Florida State G Dwayne Bacon to win ACC Player of the Year, saying, "Florida State's Dwayne Bacon is certainly a contender for Player of the Year honors in the ACC. There are times on the floor when he is as good as anyone in the nation." ... Florida State entered Saturday's game ranked No. 11 in the latest NCAA Men's Basketball RPI Ranking. The Seminoles are 2-1 against their two top-10 opponents with a victory over No. 4 Louisville and a win over No. 8 Florida; 4-1 against their top 20 opponents with victories over No. 14 Virginia and No. 15 Duke; 5-2 against their top-25 with a victory over No. 25 Notre Dame.