NEW YORK — Despite squandering a 17-point lead in the second half, road-tested Louisville didn't get discouraged.

Terrence Williams scored 21 points, Earl Clark added 17 and No. 12 Louisville beat West Virginia 82-71 in double overtime Thursday night to advance to the semifinals of the Big East conference tournament.

The Cardinals went 6-2 in conference road games this season and also won several close games down the stretch.

"I think the road made us a tough basketball team," Cardinals coach Rick Pitino said. "We have droughts from time to time, but we don't get down about it. We just hang in there."

Louisville (23-8) won its season-high seventh straight and 11th in the last 13 games. The Cardinals will face No. 13 Pittsburgh next.

During the winning streak, the Cardinals also won by 13 at Pittsburgh, by two at Marquette and seven at Connecticut.

The Cardinals face Pitt in one semifinal while top-seeded Georgetown will face fourth-seeded Notre Dame in the other tonight as the top four seeds advanced to the semifinals for the first time since 2003. The Hoyas beat Villanova 62-57 and the Irish got past Syracuse 89-83.

The Cardinals have played close games against the Mountaineers the last two years. Louisville beat West Virginia in overtime in the NCAA regional finals in 2005 and lost by four points at Morgantown in the regular season last year.

"For some reason, we always have great games with West Virginia," Pitino said. "They are very difficult to play against, and our guys did a great job of concentrating defensively. We hit a drought offensively. We were just missing shots that would normally go in for some of our people and they didn't."

Edgar Sosa drove the length of the court and made a left-handed layup at the buzzer for the Cardinals to force overtime.

Frank Young had 19 points and Da'Sean Butler added 17 for the Mountaineers (22-9), who used an 18-0 run in the second half to take their first lead of the game.

"It's a painful loss when you do everything and then you come back and take the lead," West Virginia coach John Beilein said. "They made some breaks go their way. We did not have many breaks in that last overtime."