PITTSBURGH — Ashton Gibbs ignored the clock, ignored his teammates, ignored the situation. For the first time in a long time, the preseason Big East Player of the Year was feeling it. No need to overthink things.

The Pittsburgh senior guard launched the deep 3-pointer with the clock ticking down late in the first half and, when it splashed through the net for his fourth 3-pointer in less than two minutes, the Panthers’ bench exploded.

Hey, it’d been awhile.

Gibbs finished with 22 points and Pitt snapped a miserable eight-game losing streak with an 86-74 victory over Providence on Wednesday night.

“Once one shot went it, I just felt good and continued to take the rest,” Gibbs said. “They gave me open opportunities and I continued to take advantage of them.”

Having a healthy Trayvon Woodall helped. The junior point guard had 17 points and nine rebounds in his second game back from groin and abdominal injuries as the Panthers (12-9, 1-7) ended five weeks of misery.

“They’re totally different team (with Woodall),” Providence coach Ed Cooley said. “Everybody’s in their roles. Everybody’s in their comfort zone ... they’re a good basketball team when he’s on the floor.”

The problem is that Woodall hasn’t been on the floor much since going down late in a victory over Duquesne on Nov. 30. He missed six games then tried to come back against Notre Dame only to re-aggravate the injury.

He returned for good against Louisville last Saturday, but played 21 ineffective minutes.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon preached patience, insisting the only way for Woodall to get back in shape was to play his way there.

Consider Woodall as close to 100 percent as he’s been all season.

“Saturday, I felt comfortable,” Woodall said. “It was my first game and I didn’t think I had enough legs under me. I think tonight I just went out and played basketball and didn’t worry about my legs.”

It helped that the Friars (12-9, 1-7) didn’t worry about playing any defense.

Vincent Council nearly had a triple-double for Providence, finishing with 26 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists, but the Friars lost their third straight by failing to adequately guard the worst offensive team in the conference.

Pitt came in last in the league in scoring, 15th in 3-point percentage and 14th in field goal percentage but had little trouble lighting up Providence. The Panthers shot 49 percent from the floor (32 of 65) and made 55 percent (11 of 20) of their 3-pointers.

“We didn’t take a step back defensively, we’re sprinting back,” Cooley said. “I’m not seeing a team determined to get stops. I see a team trying to outscore people. We’re not talented enough yet.”

The Panthers were, for a night anyway. The defending conference champions won for the first time since beating St. Francis (Pa.) the week before Christmas by getting out on the floor and running.

Woodall led the way as Pitt scored 23 points on the break and finished with 22 assists against just 10 turnovers.

“He’s a guy that finds guys at the right time,” Dixon said of Woodall. “Those guys are hard to find. There (are) not a lot of guys like that out there.”

Gibbs has struggled mightily during Woodall’s absence. Dixon moved Gibbs to point guard when Woodall went down, and the burden has certainly affected his shot. Gibbs is on pace to set career lows in total shooting percentage, including 3-point shooting percentage, an extended slump his coach blamed on a heavy workload.

Now that Woodall has returned, the burden of running the offense has been lifted, and Gibbs showed flashes of his former brilliance during a spectacular stretch at the end of the first half.

The Panthers led 30-24 when Gibbs got going, hitting a layup to push the advantage to eight. A 3-pointer followed. And another. And another. And another.

The last — a “heat-check” bomb from the left wing — gave Pitt a 44-29 lead. The Petersen Events Center crowd, including Pittsburgh Steelers Brett Keisel and Casey Hampton, roared its approval as Pitt took a 46-31 lead into the break.

“That was the game,” Cooley said.

The Friars simply couldn’t keep up despite the best efforts of Council, Bryce Cotton (20 points) and LaDontae Henton (12 points, 11 rebounds). Pitt’s lead grew to 61-44 on a 3-pointer by John Johnson.

Playing with a sizable lead for the first time in 2012, the Panthers relaxed briefly and Providence rallied to within 70-63 on a layup by Cotton with 8:02 to go.

The comeback fizzled quickly. Gibbs hit a long jumper, Lamar Patterson (nine points, 11 rebounds) finished on the break off a feed from Woodall and Nasir Robinson (14 points) added a nifty hook to push the lead back to 13 as Pitt ended 35 days of misery and became the final Big East team to enter the win column.

“We’d like to have a better record but we had to go through some things,” Dixon said. “You’ve just got to keep battling, just keep going forward.”