No. 19 Pittsburgh upsets No. 3 Villanova

The Pitt Panthers continued their dominance against top 5 teams at the Petersen Events Center, knocking off No. 3 Villanova 70-65, this afternoon in front of the largest crowd (12,920) ever at the Petersen Events Center.

The No. 19 Panthers improved to 21-6 on the season and 10-4 in the Big East. Villanova (22-4) loss for only the fourth time this year and fell to 11-3 in the Big East.

In the first meeting between the two teams since Villanova's dramatic NCAA tournament win last year, Ashton Gibbs led the way for Pitt scoring 21 points and Gilbert Brown added 16 points, including an highlight reel dunk with a 1:29 remaining to put Pitt up by 6.

The Panthers led 29-23 at the end of the first half and never trailed in the second half.

Pitt out-rebounded Villanova 40-34 as Gary McGhee had a strong game inside, leading Pitt with 10 rebounds, including a game-high 8 offensive rebounds.

Pitt played a scrappy game and head coach Jamie Dixon pointed towards Pitt's play in the defensive end as a reason the Panthers were able to knock off the No. 3 team in the nation.

“Our defense was the key to us winning today, " Dixon said.

"It was a good win against a very good Villanova team. They did a great job with clock management and the foul situation towards the end and we weren’t able to put the game away completely. It’s important that we continue to improve and as far as improvement goes, I think we’ve done it more than any team in the country. We still have plenty of things we could work on.”

Pitt guard Jermaine Dixon kept Villanova's Scottie Reyonalds in check, limiting Reynolds to 15 points.

For the Panthers, they move into a third place tie in the Big East with West Virginia. With four games remaining (at Notre Dame, at St. John's, home Providence, home Rutgers), Pitt is in position to move up in the standings owning head-to-head tiebreakers with Syracuse and now Villanova.