No. 3 Pitt downs No. 1 UConn

Sam Young had 31 points and 10 rebounds, as third-ranked Pittsburgh downed top-ranked Connecticut in a Big East showdown at Petersen Events Center.

Levance Fields overcame a bruised tailbone to finish with 10 points and 12 assists -- to only two turnovers -- for Pitt (28-3, 15-3 Big East), which jumbled the conference standings.

UConn (27-3, 15-3) could have clinched at least a share of the Big East regular season title with a win. Now the Huskies are tied with Pittsburgh, as the door is opened for No. 6 Louisville, which owns a 15-2 conference mark and plays at West Virginia later Saturday.

Brad Wanamaker ended with 13 points and DeJuan Blair added eight points and eight boards for the Panthers, who ended the season with a perfect home record of 19-0.

Pitt capitalized on numerous transition opportunities to get its third consecutive win and to complete the sweep of the season series with the Huskies. Pitt defeated UConn, 76-68, in Hartford on February 16, when the Huskies were also the No. 1 team in the country.

"The difference was fouls," said Blair. "This game was called a lot tighter than the last time, and I kind of had to watch myself a little more closely. Thankfully I was still able to do what I had to do to get us a win."

A.J. Price made 4-of-8 three-point attempts and finished with 19 points for UConn, which had a three-game win streak broken. Hasheem Thabeet ended with 14 points, 13 boards and five blocks, while Jeff Adrien added 11 points and eight rebounds for the Huskies.

"I've never been to a game that we've lost the ball as much as we did today," said UConn coach Jim Calhoun. "The ball seemed to slip out of our hands a lot. They'd get the ball out of our hands, legally. We fought an uphill battle being on the road against a team that matches our caliber and it was Pitt's senior day. We know that we can beat them, although I don't have any evidence of it considering that we're zero-and-two against them."

Wanamaker's layup gave Pitt a 52-38 lead with 12 1/2 minutes to play, but UConn stormed back with a 12-0 run. Price fueled the surge with eight points, including a pair of threes, and Stanley Robinson ended it with a dunk to bring the Huskies within 52-50 with 8 1/2 minutes to go.

Price connected on another three-pointer several minutes later to cut his team's deficit to 56-53, but Pitt pulled away with seven consecutive points. Jermaine Dixon had a layup and Young followed with a dunk, and was fouled on the play. He made the free throw, and after Price missed a three, Fields sank a layup, giving the Panthers a 63-53 lead with four minutes to go.

It was a back-breaking stretch for UConn, which didn't get closer than eight points the rest of the way.

Pitt used a similar burst to get a double-digit lead early in the first half. A nine-point run, capped by a Wanamaker three, put the Panthers ahead 23-13. UConn didn't let the deficit grow larger, and Young's layup in the waning seconds gave Pitt a 38-28 lead at the break.

Thabeet was the Huskies' driving force in the first half, scoring 14 points, but did not score once over the final 20 minutes.

Young and Blair began the second half with back-to-back baskets for a 14-point advantage. UConn got the Pitt lead down to eight with three consecutive baskets, but Young drilled a three in transition to make it a 45-34 game nearly five minutes in.

Game Notes

While Price made 4-of-8 three-point attempts, the rest of his team went 0- for-6. UConn shot 37.7 percent overall, and 10-of-19 from the foul line...Pitt made 44.1 percent of its shots, but only 4-of-20 three-pointers. Young had three of them, out of five attempts. The Panthers took only nine free throws, making six...Pitt went undefeated at home for the fourth time in school history. The Panthers also accomplished the feat in 2002-03 (16-0), 1973-74 (13-0) and 1974-75 (10-0).