PITTSBURGH - It might be unfair to call the final 16 minutes of Pitt's critical Big East Conference home game the most important stretch of the Panthers season.
But it sure felt that way.
The players certainly performed with an urgency expected from a team fighting for good seeds in the conference and NCAA tournaments.
Trailing 40-33 following a three-pointer from Cincinnati sharpshooter Deonta Vaughn, Pitt had 16:27 left to avoid a four-game losing streak. Sam Young and Keith Benjamin scored all the points as the Panthers responded with a season-saving 14-3 run and held on for a 73-67 victory in front of 11,525 at Petersen Events Center.
"If there's anything going to change, we have to change it now. We've got to get it done," Benjamin said of the Panthers' mindset during a timeout after the Vaughn three-pointer. "After that, shots started falling and we were getting stops."
Young, who finished with 20 points but zero rebounds, capped the run with a basket inside for a 47-43 lead with 10:42 remaining.
The game was everything but over for Pitt (20-8, 8-7), which moved into a tie for seventh place with Cincinnati (13-14, 8-7).
Pitt got some much-needed three-point shooting from Ronald Ramon, whose second three-pointer of the second half put Pitt ahead for good at 52-49. Benjamin also made two threes - both during the 14-3 run - and he finished with 11 points.
No shot, however, proved as vital as a late three-pointer from point guard Levance Fields, who took only two shots in the second half.
Mired in a shooting slump since returning four games ago, Fields drained a wide-open three with 54 seconds remaining to put Pitt ahead 68-63. Since his return, Fields had made only seven of 38 attempts before hitting the game-clinching shot.
"I wasn't really trying to look for my shot," Fields said. "Down the stretch, no matter what, I'm ready and willing to take that shot."
Fields' shot won't draw the attention that his overtime game-winner earlier this season against Duke did, but it may prove more important.
"That three by Levance was big," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "We were 8-for-26 (from three). We got outrebounded and we didn't defend. But, to their credit, they made shots."
For the fourth straight game, an opponent outrebounded Pitt. Cincinnati finished with a 37-25 advantage in rebounds with 18 coming on the offensive end. Despite shooting 48.1 percent (26 of 54), the Bearcats managed only 10 second-chance points off their offensive rebounds.
"I guess I didn't have enough and Sam didn't have any at all," DeJuan Blair said. "We can't get outrebounded. We're usually at the top of the conference and that's slipping away."
Blair finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds but Pitt had difficulties defending forward John Williamson, who tied a career-high with 27 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Vaughn, the Big East's fourth-leading scorer at 17.2 points per game, finished with 24 points and eight assists.
"We're not rebounding. The numbers don't lie," Dixon said. "They seemed to get every long rebound. We did win but we're not going to win consistently like that, especially with how we usually win."
It marked the seventh time during the conference season Pitt, with no starter taller than the 6-7 Blair, has been outrebounded. After beating Cincinnati, Pitt is 1-6 in those games.
With games at Syracuse Saturday and West Virginia on Monday, Pitt will take a win any way it can get one.
"We were very excited in the locker room," Fields said. "It feels real good to get one but we have to build on this."
Bits and pieces
Pitt is 1-3 since Fields returned from a broken left foot. ... Ramon eclipsed the 1,000-career point plateau on his third three-point field goal of the game. Ramon, who has never averaged more than 8.8 points per game during a season, needed seven points entering the game and finished with nine. ... Young went past 1,000 career points during Pitt's last game. ... Pitt forward Gilbert Brown has missed his last 17 three-point attempts.