Backyard Brawl: No. 6 West Virginia Hosts No. 22 Pittsburgh

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Morgantown, WV (Sports Network) - Da’Sean Butler scored 18 points and Kevin Jones added 16, as No. 6 West Virginia posted a 70-51 victory over 22nd-ranked Pittsburgh in another physical battle between the Big East rivals.

Deniz Kilicli chipped in nine points, while Devin Ebanks grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds to go with seven points for the Mountaineers (18-3, 7-2 Big East), winners of five straight after a one-point loss to Syracuse on January 16.

West Virginia made 9-of-21 three-point tries and held Pitt (16-6, 6-4) to 30.2 percent shooting overall to remain in third place in the Big East.

Jermaine Dixon and Ashton Gibbs ended with 13 and 11 points, respectively, for the Panthers, who have lost four of five since starting the conference schedule with a 5-0 mark. Brad Wanamaker entered the game averaging nearly 13 points per game but went scoreless on 0-of-4 shooting in the loss.

Down 10 in the second half, the Panthers embarked on a 9-1 run to pull within 43-41 on J.J. Richardson’s bucket near the 13-minute mark.

A traveling violation on Darryl Bryant with 12:10 left in regulation resulted in a fan throwing trash on the court. Mountaineers head coach Bob Huggins took the public address microphone and berated the home crowd after the incident.

The short stoppage in play and an emotional Huggins appeared to spark the Mountaineers, who responded with 13 of the next 16 points, including a three- ball from Jones for a 56-44 lead with 6 1/2 minutes on the clock.

The score remained the same when players from both teams got into a scuffle under Pitt’s basket, causing a referee to fall in the process with 5:14 left.

Technical fouls were assessed to both teams, and West Virginia was able to pull away at the free throw line down the stretch to come away victorious in basketball’s version of the Backyard Brawl.

Kilicli made a quick impact in his collegiate debut, scoring the final six points on a 12-3 run early in the opening half. The 6-foot-9 Turkish forward followed a Butler three-pointer with a pair of jump hooks and a putback of a Butler miss, the latter yielding a 20-10 lead eight minutes in.

Pitt fought back and was within three, 29-26, after Dixon’s jumper with 2 1/2 minutes to play. A pair of late tip-ins from the hosts pumped the difference to 34-28 at intermission.

Kilicli was suspended by the NCAA for the first 20 games of the season because he played on a Turkish team during the 2007-08 season that included a professional player, which is disallowed under NCAA rules...This was the fourth time in the rivalry’s history that both teams came in ranked. WVU leads the all-time series, 95-84...Gary McGhee finished with nine points and nine rebounds for the Panthers.