Pittsburgh 72, West Virginia 66

Pittsburgh 72, West Virginia 66

Published Jan. 31, 2012 3:12 a.m. ET

Tray Woodall scored a game-high 24 points and Pittsburgh won its third straight Big East game with a 72-66 defeat of West Virginia on Monday night.

Ashton Gibbs added 15 points for the Panthers (14-9, 3-7).

Kevin Jones scored 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to get his 16th double-double of the season for West Virginia (15-8, 5-5), which lost its third straight conference game.

Darryl ''Truck'' Bryant had 14 points, Deniz Kilicli finished with 12 and Jabarie Hinds had 10 for the Mountaineers.

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West Virginia held a 17-9 lead in the first half when Pitt went to work.

The Panthers outscored the Mountaineers 9-2 to trail 19-18 with 6:08 to go.

The teams went through four more lead changes and two ties en route to Pitt's 33-29 halftime advantage.

The Panthers scored the first two baskets of the second half and led 37-31 before Dante Taylor was fouled while making a layup.

Official Sean Corbin called a technical foul against West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, and after Ashton Gibbs made one of the two technical shots and Taylor made his free throw, the Panthers led 41-31 at the 17:40 mark.

West Virginia outscored Pitt 14-7 over the next seven minutes to trail 48-45 on a jumper by Jones with 10:45 to go.

The Mountaineers cut it to 54-52 when Kilicli blocked a Pitt shot, which Hinds turned into a layup with 8:12 remaining.

Jones' jumper at 7:31 again pulled West Virginia within two, 56-54.

Then Pitt got a layup from Lamar Patterson and a free throw by J.J. Moore to go ahead 59-54 with 5:02 left.

Gary Browne netted a pair of free throws for West Virginia, but Pitt answered with baskets by Talib Zanna and Gibbs to go back on top by seven points with 3:36 showing.

Kilicli picked up a loose ball under the basket and pulled West Virginia within 70-66 with 17 seconds left.

But Keaton Miles picked up his fifth foul and Pitt's Gibbs converted both free throws to put the game away.

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