NEW YORK — The Big East has four teams ranked in the top 12, and three others in the Top 25. That's a quick answer as to why it is regarded as the top conference in the country.

It's not even at the halfway point of the conference season and only West Virginia has yet to lose in league play.

"It's pretty unbelievable," senior forward Mike Gansey said Sunday after helping the ninth-ranked Mountaineers remain unbeaten in the Big East with a 66-61 victory over St. John's at Madison Square Garden.

"Now," he said, "we have to keep it going."

And that's going to be tough.

"We know we have a target on our back, but we haven't played some of the tougher teams like Connecticut, Pitt and Notre Dame," senior center Kevin Pittsnogle said. "They are pretty good teams. We will see after we play them."

West Virginia made just one field goal over the final 11 minutes and almost blew a 13-point lead in the last 3 minutes, but the Mountaineers managed to hang on against St. John's.

"We didn't expect to win by 20 and obviously we struggled down the stretch," said Gansey, who had 15 points, including four free throws in the final 14 seconds. "St. John's is a tough team and we knew they would make a run."

Pittsnogle had 19 points for the Mountaineers (15-4, 6-0), who were coming off a 58-52 loss to Marshall this week that snapped its 12-game winning streak.

"That was such a big game for us and Marshall in our state," Gansey said of the nonconference matchup between West Virginia's only two Division I programs. "We had a couple of good practices and got back to the Big East."

It looked as though the Mountaineers were really glad to be back in the conference, leading 54-36 with 11:18 to play.

West Virginia then went cold as the Red Storm got within 62-60 with 30 seconds to play.

"There have been games where we have given away leads, UCLA for example," Pittsnogle said, referring to last weekend's 60-56 win over the Bruins, a game in which a 20-point second-half lead was cut to three in the final 2 minutes.

"We know we will make plays at the end of games," he said. "We are a senior-laden team and we know how to win games."

Mountaineers coach John Beilein wanted to make sure everybody knew how important this game was.

"I am trying to stress how great this win is with how St. John's has been the last few Big East games," Beilein said, referring to the Red Storm's stretch of games against ranked teams that started with wins over Louisville and Pittsburgh and included a tough loss at No. 1 Connecticut last week.

"This was a good win for us," he said. "We have toughed out three road wins now and that is tough to do that in this league."

With the Red Storm (10-8, 3-4) within two points, Gansey missed two free throws with 27 seconds left. Eugene Lawrence missed on a drive, but Lamont Hamilton got the rebound for the Red Storm. Daryll Hill threw the ball away with 14 seconds left and Gansey was fouled again.

This time, the 65 percent free-throw shooter made both and the Mountaineers had a 64-60 lead.

Hill made one free throw with 5.2 seconds left, and Gansey ended any thoughts of an upset when he made two more free throws with 3.1 seconds to go.

"I missed two free throws then shook it off and made four," Gansey said.

Frank Young had 11 points, nine in the first half, for West Virginia, which beat St. John's for the fifth straight time. The last three games have been by a total of 10 points.

Hamilton had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Red Storm, who played without starting center Aaron Spears, who was suspended after being ejected for fighting against Connecticut.

Hill added 17 points for St. John's, which finished 3-for-13 from 3-point range and outrebounded West Virginia 49-25.

"These games show we are capable of playing with anybody if we have the focus and energy we need to have," St. John's coach Norm Roberts said of the four-game run with ranked teams. "Now we have games coming against non-ranked teams that are still good basketball teams and we have to play with the same passion. If we do that, we will win our share of games."

Pittsnogle's 3 was the Mountaineers' only field goal over the last 11 minutes. They shot 41.5 percent for the game (22-for-53) and were 10-of-27 from 3-point range. West Virginia entered second in the country with 10.3 3-pointers per game.

"We had good shots and didn't make them and that other team was charging," Beilein said. "Then, Kevin hit that big shot we really needed, the big dagger."

AP-ES-01-30-06 0240EST