PITTSBURGH - This is becoming a familiar sight for No. 18 Pittsburgh: A big lead squandered as an opponent pours in 3-pointer after 3-pointer.

Especially when that opponent is Kevin Pittsnogle-led West Virginia.

Pittsnogle scored all but two of his 22 points in the second half and West Virginia rallied from 14 points down in just over nine minutes to surprise No. 18 Pittsburgh for the second time this season, winning 70-66 Wednesday night.

West Virginia trailed 56-42 before riding Pittsnogle's exceptional outside shooting during a game-ending 28-10 run that saw Pittsburgh held without a field goal for the final 7:26.

"It's very disappointing to be in the situation where we were and come up short, it's disheartening for us," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "I don't think it falls on any one guy - we just didn't do what we had to do offensively or defensively."

Pittsnogle was 4-for-4 from 3-point range while making all but one of six second-half shots. The 6-foot-11 junior is averaging 24.5 against Pitt and 9.2 against West Virginia's other opponents this season.

"I tried to let the game come to me," Pittsnogle said. "I rushed a lot of shots in the first half and took some bad shots."

As the game was coming to Pittsnogle, it was getting away from the Panthers in a near-carbon copy of West Virginia's 83-78 overtime victory over Pitt Feb. 5. Then, the Mountaineers trailed by 11 points in the second half before rallying behind Pittsnogle's career-high 27 points.

Pitt (18-6, 8-5) missed a chance to move into a third-place tie with Syracuse in the Big East race - the top five get opening-round byes in the conference tournament - while losing its second straight to a strong outside shooting team. No. 23 Villanova went 12-of-23 from 3-point range in an 80-72 victory Sunday.

The Panthers have allowed 58 3-pointers in their last six games, when four opponents have made at least 11 3s against them.

"We've come up short in the past couple of games when teams have hit 3s," Dixon said. "When a team shoots the ball well, it makes it hard to guard."

And to decide who to play. Pitt's 6-11 Chris Taft had 10 points and 13 rebounds despite playing only 23 minutes, mostly because the Panthers switched to smaller defenders to try to shut down West Virginia's outside shooting.

West Virginia finished 11-of-26 behind the arc to Pitt's 3-of-11 in sweeping the season series from its rival for the first time since 1998. The Mountaineers made 24 3-pointers in the two games against Pitt.

"We've gone smaller with teams that shoot the ball well from the 3-point line, but it didn't work tonight because they continued to hit shots," Dixon said.

Pitt held a 39-22 rebounding edge - getting 21 offensive rebounds to West Virginia's 3 - yet still lost at home for the third time in 16 games this season. The Panthers lost only once in their first two seasons in the Petersen Events Center.

Until Pittsnogle suddenly found his range, Pitt was in full control. The Panthers turned a 14-13 deficit into a 33-21 lead late in the first half, then led by double digits for most of the second half as Chevon Troutman scored 15 and Antonio Graves had 14.

The Panthers could sense the momentum swinging as Pittsnogle hit two 3-pointers and a jumper in a 90-second span to help cut a 14-point Pitt lead with 9:29 remaining to 62-60, and they suddenly began rushing shots and making careless turnovers.

J.D. Collins' driving layup with 2:28 remaining tied it at 62, and Pittsnogle's shot with 1:09 remaining put West Virginia ahead to stay at 66-64.

"It's why people love college basketball," West Virginia coach John Beilein said. "You can expect the unexpected at any time. The ball didn't bounce our way until the last five minutes, then everything went our way."