BOSTON — Exulting in another tight victory, Sam Young did backflips near the spot where Levance Fields hit the go-ahead 3-pointer from beyond the top of the key.

Fields followed that basket with 53.9 seconds left with a layup, then stood near the same spot, punched the air and let out a whoop with his dreadlocks flying and his team's victory all but certain.

Now Pittsburgh and its star point guard are in the exact spot where they hoped to be — their first berth in a regional final in 35 years after a 60-55 win over Xavier Thursday night.

And Jamie Dixon, a loser in his other two appearances in the round of 16 in his previous five seasons as Pitt's coach, can move ahead. But not before Fields went over to share the moment with him with a few seconds left.

"The biggest knock has been not a Final Four appearance and not getting past Sweet 16," the star point guard said. "So this is just a step toward that. And I just wanted to embrace him because he deserves it."

Now if the top-seeded Panthers can beat Villanova, another Big East team, Saturday night, they'll earn that date in Detroit at the Final Four. The third-seeded Wildcats beat second-seeded Duke 77-54 in Thursday's second East regional semifinal.

The last time Pitt was in a regional final was in 1974 when it lost to eventual national champion North Carolina State and star David Thompson 100-72.

"It definitely means a lot for us as players, the coach and the city," Young said. "It's something that everybody has been waiting for a long time, for us to give them that as a pleasure. But at the same time we feel like we've still got work to do."

They're hoping that work won't be as difficult as their last three wins.

Top-seeded Pitt had a tough time with 16th-seeded East Tennessee State and was tied with Oklahoma State with 2:47 left before winning.

On Thursday, it trailed fourth-seeded Xavier 54-52 with less than a minute remaining in a very physical game with smothering defense and hotly contested rebounds.

Then one of the smoothest players on the court took over.

"In some ways we still haven't played our best basketball," Fields said. "It hasn't been a blowout, but we're making the plays down the stretch when the game is on the line. And we keep advancing and hopefully on Saturday we can play better. But if we have to win again like this, we'll take it."

Pitt (31-4) was led by Young with 19 points, Fields with 14 and Big East co-player of the year DeJuan Blair with 10 points and 17 rebounds, the sophomore's 20th double-double of the season.

Xavier (27-8) got 15 points from B.J. Raymond and 14 from Derrick Brown.

"It's just sad that we had to go out the way we went out," Brown said. "The season we had, it was about toughness and finishing what we do. And we didn't finish."

Xavier was just 5-5 in its last 10 games before the tournament then posted easy wins over Portland State and Wisconsin in which it allowed a total of 108 points.

The Musketeers led 37-29 at halftime Thursday. But they missed their first 10 shots of the second half and fell behind 38-37.

"As we missed some shots that we normally make, it became a little bit tighter for us," Xavier coach Sean Miller said. "And I think our offense started to reflect our tightness."

Still, they went ahead 54-52 when Dante Jackson drove in for a layup with 1:50 to play.

Then it was time for Fields to take over.

Against Oklahoma State, he made a layup and a 3-pointer after the score was tied at 74, and the Panthers won 84-76.

On Thursday, the 3-pointer came first.

"We ran our go-to play," Fields said. "I did a little bit of an in-and-out move, got him (Jackson) on his heels a little bit and took the shot. Once I got him back, I took the open shot. I had confidence in it."

Miller also was a very good point guard for Pitt at one time. He played there from 1987-92 and is second in school history in assists.

"I thought the shot Levance Fields hit is all about (the poise of) senior point guards," he said.

And Fields wasn't done.

He stripped the ball from Raymond and raced in for an easy layup and a 57-54 lead with 23.9 seconds left.