Young's 20 lead No. 4 Pitt past W.Va. 70-59

[February 10, 2009]  PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Sam Young scored 20 points as No. 4 Pittsburgh seized the lead with a late first-half run and went on to beat rival West Virginia 70-59 on Monday night.

Young followed up a 22-point game in Pitt's 79-67 win at West Virginia two weeks ago, making seven of 12 shots and adding seven rebounds. Levance Fields had 13 points and seven assists to help the Panthers (22-2, 9-2 in Big East) win their fourth in a row and sixth in seven games.

Alex Ruoff scored 17 points and Devin Ebanks 16, but West Virginia (16-8, 5-6) lost its sixth in seven games against ranked Big East teams even though Pitt's DeJuan Blair was in foul trouble most of the game.

Pittsburgh, known for its defense and not its offense, had scored 90 points or more in succession against DePaul, Robert Morris and Notre Dame. That wasn't going to happen against West Virginia, which came in leading the Big East with a 61 points per game defensive average.

Especially not with Blair sitting out most of the first half after drawing his second foul with 15:14 remaining in the half. The 6-foot-7 Blair was coming off a 32-point, 14-rebound game against DePaul on Saturday and was averaging 24.3 points and 14.7 rebounds in his previous three, but didn't score until getting Pitt's first two baskets of the second half.

Blair finished with eight points and nine rebounds in 16 minutes.

Pitt fell behind by as many as four with Blair out, but a Young-led 13-3 run helped the Panthers open a 29-22 lead with 1:12 remaining before halftime.

West Virginia had foul problems of its own -- Ruoff, who scored 24 points against Providence on Saturday, drew his fourth foul near the midpoint of the second half and fouled out with 7:18 remaining.

The Panthers pushed their lead to 15 points not long after that with a 10-1 run that occurred even as Blair left after drawing a technical foul for protesting an offensive foul call with Pitt up 52-40.

Ruoff made one of the two free throws but West Virginia couldn't score on the ensuing possession after the technical and Fields came back with a left-handed layoff and two free throws the next two times Pitt had the ball.

The Mountaineers didn't have enough offense to catch up in losing their third in four games, not with Blair repeatedly limiting them to one shot per possession when he was in the game. The Mountaineers shot 40.4 percent, 21-of-52, and were outrebounded 39-23.

West Virginia is 2-7 overall against Top 25 opponents and has lost four in a row at Pittsburgh.

Pitt, 15-0 at home this season, swept the basketball version of the Backyard Brawl for the second time in three seasons despite making only 4-of-13 from 3-point range.

[Associated Press; By ALAN ROBINSON]

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