Kevin Pittsnogle missed all of his 3-pointers in the first half, but he did not let that get… Kevin Pittsnogle missed all of his 3-pointers in the first half, but he did not let that get to him. His outlook is a positive one.

“A shooter always thinks his next shot is going in,” he said after last night’s game at the Petersen Event Center.

In actuality, his next four shots from beyond the 3-point line fell in, helping West Virginia to another upset over Pitt — this time by the score of 70-66.

Pittsnogle was the main Mountaineer again, scoring 20 of his 22 in the final nine minutes and 14 seconds. He led West Virginia on a 17-6 run to tie the game at 62. The 6-foot-11-inch junior forward started the run with back-to-back 3-pointers. At the time, West Virginia trailed 56-42 with 9:29 remaining.

Following a layup from Tyrone Sally and two free throws from Patrick Beilein, Pittsnogle recorded the next nine Mountaineer points to cut Pitt’s lead to 62-60.

It was J.D. Collins, however, who scored the tying bucket with a driving layup.

Panther guard Antonio Graves hit two free throws later to give Pitt a two-point lead, but Pittsnogle again went on a run, scoring six points — four on free throws to give the Mountaineers a four-point lead.

Pitt attempted several shots in the final minute, though all went everywhere but through the hoop.

The same story could have been said from the free-throw line where Pitt shot 15-for-24 last night. During the final nine minutes, when West Virginia mounted its comeback, the Panthers hit only six of 12 free throws — the difference between a win and a loss, with the margin of victory being four points.

“We really missed some shots at times,” head coach Jamie Dixon explained. “We had some good looks that we didn’t make. There were a couple things that we just came up short on.”

The Panthers, in fact, did not make a field goal in the final 7:26 — the last shot coming from Chevon Troutman, who finished the game with 15 points.

Trailing 66-64, Graves had a chance to give Pitt a lead with a wide-open 3-point shot from the left corner, but it hit rim and bounced out with Troutman grabbing the rebound. He was overmatched in the paint, though, and was not able to hold onto it.

Troutman was overmatched because forward Chris Taft was not on the court. Dixon sat Taft, who finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds, opting, at the end of the game, to go with a smaller lineup to guard against the three.

“We wanted to have the defense out there,” Dixon explained. “Sometimes there’s a different matchup, and we’ve gone with that in the past. We’ve gone smaller at the end of games, especially with a team that shoots the ball well from the 3-point line.”

But Dixon’s defensive game plan fell through as West Virginia hit six of eight 3-pointers in the second half.

“It didn’t work tonight because they continued to hits shots,” Dixon added.

The Mountaineers performed similarly on Feb. 5 when they pulled off an 83-78 overtime win against the Panthers. West Virginia made 50 percent of its shots in that game, and history repeated itself last night as the Mountaineers shot 22-of-44.

Another piece of history that repeated itself was that Pitt went to the locker room with a lead. Last night, the Panthers held a 10-point advantage at the break, only to watch Pittsnogle become the second-half hero.

Pittsnogle said after the game that he enjoys playing Pitt. Judging from his 22 points last night and his 27 back on Feb. 5, it’s easy to see why.

“It’s a big rivalry game,” he said. “There is a lot of intensity, and it’s a lot of fun.”

Pitt now has to quickly turn around and play on Saturday against Connecticut — a rematch of the Jan. 22 76-66 comeback win for the Panthers. The players are aware of what needs to be done to ensure not only a bid to the NCAA tournament, but a decent seed in the Big East Tournament.

“We really have no choice,” Graves said after the game. “We just have to look forward. This is the past now. We have to look to the future.”

The game will tip-off at 3:45 p.m. and will be televised on CBS.

“We got to deal with right now,” Graves said. “We can’t have [any more] letdowns.”