The last time the Pitt men’s basketball team played West Virginia, the Panthers overcame a… The last time the Pitt men’s basketball team played West Virginia, the Panthers overcame a seven-point deficit in the final 45 seconds and won what became — an hour or so later — the longest home game in their history. Pitt emerged from the 180th edition of the Backyard Brawl basketball edition, its 12 lead changes and its 12 ties, with a 98-95 triple-overtime victory.

A lot has changed since that game last February. Three of West Virginia’s five starters have moved on, and the powerhouse No. 4 Mountaineers of last season now hover in the middle of the Big East pack. But Monday night, it’s still West Virginia and Pitt, and it’s still the Backyard Brawl at 7 p.m. in Morgantown.

And the No. 4 Panthers (21-2, 9-1 Big East) still have Ashton Gibbs, who scored 24 points in the last edition of the Brawl — including a late 3-pointer that capped the wild comeback and sent the game into overtime. He has been the most dependable Panther recently, scoring 25 points in a 71-59 win over Cincinnati Saturday night.

“Things are clicking more for me,” Gibbs said after Pitt’s win over the Bearcats. “I have to give credit to my teammates on getting me the open shot by moving and screening.”

Gibbs also carried Pitt to a win at Rutgers last week. The rest of the team had nine baskets total, but the Big East’s leader in per-game 3-pointers had 24 points.

The Panthers had to rely on Gibbs a little bit more than usual Saturday night, as forward Dante Taylor missed the game with a sore knee. The injury forced Gary McGhee to play a season-high 33 minutes.

Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon called Taylor a game-time decision for Monday’s meeting with the No. 25 Mountaineers (15-7, 6-4 Big East).

“We’ll see how [the knee] is,” Dixon said after Saturday’s win. “He was pretty sore today and didn’t feel good at all.”

Cincinnati out-rebounded Pitt in Taylor’s absence, and the Panthers face another strong rebounding team on Monday.

West Virginia’s Kevin Jones (7.1 rebounds/game) and John Flowers (6.6 rebounds/game) make Bob Huggins’ Mountaineers a tough group to play against in the paint.

Pitt had no answer to West Virginia’s big men last season. Nine days before the triple-overtime thriller, the Mountaineers badly outrebounded the Panthers in a 70-51 drubbing in Morgantown.

“Last year when we went down there we got outplayed,” forward Gilbert Brown said. “Several of us were shut out. It’s going to be a battle, but we want to go down there and finish out strong, especially for us seniors.”

Taylor, Brown and Brad Wanamaker all went scoreless in Morgantown last season.

“It wasn’t good last year when we went down there,” Wanamaker said. “We got outplayed all around.”

The Mountaineers lost their last game, a 66-50 defeat at the hands of No. 12 Villanova Saturday afternoon. Leading scorer Casey Mitchell (16.6 points/game) returned from a suspension for violating team rules but went scoreless in 13 minutes off the bench.

Huggins never disclosed the specifics of why Mitchell was suspended.

Pitt’s last loss came on Jan. 24 against No. 15 Notre Dame, when the Fighting Irish ran the “burn” game plan that slowed the tempo — and the Panthers’ offense — to a crawl. Although the strategy worked against Pitt that night, Wanamaker said he’d be surprised if West Virginia used it Monday.

“Slowing the pace of the game down worked for Notre Dame,” he said. “I don’t think there is any team that can do it better than [the Fighting Irish] do, so I doubt we’ll see that.”