PROVIDENCE, R.I. — In his team’s final visit to Providence as a member of the Big East, Jamie Dixon could not help but point out the difficulty of playing in his conference.

“Nobody is going to lie down. In our league, there’s always going to be good players making good shots.”

Fortunately for Dixon, his players were the ones making the big shots Tuesday night.

A jumper by Tray Woodall with 17 seconds left and two key free throws from freshman point guard James Robinson with 9 seconds to go made the difference, boosting Pittsburgh (16-4, 4-3 Big East) to a 68-64 victory over the Friars (10-9, 2-5).

Lamar Patterson led Pittsburgh with 17 points. He made 7 of 10 shots from the field and also led the Panthers with seven rebounds.

The Panthers never trailed, but never led by more than 12.

Woodall, J.J. Moore, Talib Zanna each scored nine points for the Panthers.

“Coach put the ball in our hands,” said Woodall after the game.

Bryce Cotton led the Friars with 24 points, making 4 of 9 shots from 3-point range. Kadeem Batts added 17 and led the team with nine rebounds.

“We’re trying to find a way to win,” said Providence head coach Ed Cooley. “We played hard. We had some incredibly untimely mistakes. We’ve gotta try to persevere and get through it. We’re making a lot of bad mistakes that are costing us games. A missed free throw here, an out of bounds there, they made their open shots and we didn’t.”

Pittsburgh took an early 7-2 lead, fueled by five points and two blocks from center Steven Adams. Adams left with two fouls only 3 minutes into the game, however, and didn’t return until the second half.

The Pittsburgh bench outscored Providence’s 20-3, and the Panthers also outscored the Friars 34-28 in the paint and 20-15 off turnovers.

The Panthers will return home to face DePaul Saturday afternoon.