PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon kept telling his players during every timeout that they would find a way to win.

After a flurry of mistakes, missed shots and missed opportunities, the Panthers proved Dixon prophetic.

James Robinson scored 22 points, including five free throws in the final minute to seal it as Pitt escaped with an ugly 101-96 double-overtime win over Wake Forest on Tuesday night.

“It’s good to win a close game down the stretch and have to make plays and have so many guys make plays,” Dixon said.

Chris Jones scored a career-high 23 points for the Panthers before fouling out in the second overtime. Jamel Artis and Michael Young added 19 points apiece as the Panthers (18-7, 7-6 ACC) ended a three-game losing streak and narrowly avoided a loss that would have put a severe blow into their hopes of making the NCAA tournament.

“We knew this (could have been) a season breaker,” Artis said.

Cornelius Hudson led the Demon Deacons (10-16, 1-13) with 22 points and Bryant Crawford had 20 but Wake Forest dropped its 11th straight conference game and has now lost 23 consecutive road games in the ACC.

“They all sting,” coach Danny Manning said. “Losing (stinks). There’s no other way to put it.”

This was no classic. The teams slogged through an occasionally sloppy regulation. Wake Forest erased a 10-point deficit with less than 12 minutes to go, putting together a 22-7 burst by Crawford and Codi Miller-McIntyre that put the Demon Deacons in front 68-63 with 3:39 to go. Yet nothing has come easy this season for Wake Forest, which let a seven-point advantage with less than 17 seconds to go get away against Virginia last month.

Pitt eventually tied the score at 69 and the teams traded clutch baskets in the final 34 seconds of regulation. Dinos Mitoglou’s 3 gave Wake the lead only to have Robinson answer with a 3 of his own with 16 seconds to play to force overtime.

Wake Forest had the ball and an 82-81 lead with 9 seconds left in the first overtime but Miller-McIntyre inexplicably threw the inbounds pass to Robinson, who was fouled. He made one of two to tie the game and Crawford’s runner from the corner had no chance.

“We just didn’t handle the situation that well,” Manning said.

Another 3-pointer Hudson put the Demon Deacons ahead 89-88 in the second overtime but Artis hit a pull-up jumper, Sheldon Jeter drilled a 17-footer and Robinson made a pair of free throws to finally put Wake Forest away.

“We fought back through adversity,” Artis said. “We’re 1-0 right now. We have five more to go.”

The Demon Deacons haven’t won a road ACC game since beating Virginia Tech 83-77 on Jan. 22, 2014.

Artis became the 46th Panther to reach 1,000 points when he made a jumper in the second half.