No. 4 Pittsburgh maintained its two-game lead in the Big East with a hard-fought 71-66 win at West Virginia on Monday.

The Panthers won another tight, physical edition of the Backyard Brawl without senior point guard and leading-scorer Ashton Gibbs, who is out at least 10 days with a knee injury.

The top rebounding team in the nation, Pittsburgh outrebounded West Virginia, 37-22. Big man Nasir Robinson led a balanced scoring Panther with 15 points.

West Virginia hung tough and was down only one with four minutes to play. But senior guard Brad Wanamaker, who filled in for Gibbs as Pittsburgh's primary ball-handler, made several clutch plays down the stretch to squash every challenge.

Wanamaker finished with 11 points and nine rebounds. He had a nice dump-off pass that led to Gilbert Brown's layup that put Pittsburgh up five with a minute to play. The Mountaineers would never get closer.

Pittsburgh (22-2, 10-1 Big East) has rebounded from its lone conference loss against Notre Dame to win three straight. The Panthers lead the Big East by two games over No. 10 Villanova. The Panthers and Wildcats clash Saturday in Philadelphia.

Deniz Kilicli led the Mountaineers with a career-high 19 points. West Virginia (15-8, 6-5 Big East) has lost two in a row and is not a lock for the NCAA Tournament after reaching the Final Four last season.