MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Kevin Pittsnogle is so unaccustomed to starting that he had to temporarily leave West Virginia's game early on against No. 16 Pittsburgh to catch his breath.
When he returned, he gave Pitt lots of problems.
Pittsnogle scored eight of his career-high 27 points in overtime to lead West Virginia to an 83-78 win over Pittsburgh on Saturday night. The 6-foot-11 Pittsnogle, starting for just the second time this season, was averaging eight points a game. He started because center D'or Fischer did not play due to illness.
"When I got my second wind pretty fast, I was ready to go," said Pittsnogle, whose previous high was 26 points in 2003. "My performance wasn't enough to write me in the history book, but beating Pitt makes it a lot better."
West Virginia (13-7, 3-6 Big East) broke a five-game losing streak to their rival 70 miles to the north.
Pittsnogle converted a three-point play and a 3-pointer a minute apart to give the Mountaineers their biggest lead, 73-66, with 2:08 left in overtime.
"Pittsnogle is a hard matchup for us and when he's shooting the ball from (outside), it becomes very difficult to guard for our bigger guys," said Pitt coach Jamie Dixon. "Sometimes guys step up in the absence of other guys, and that's exactly what he did."
Fischer is WVU's third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder. Pittsnogle filled in well, making 10 of 17 field goals.
The Mountaineers committed just four turnovers and erased a double-digit deficit in the second half to beat a ranked team for the first time in five tries during a grueling three-week stretch.
Hundreds of fans from the student section stormed the court and mobbed the Mountaineer players after the final buzzer. The WVU band played "Happy Birthday" and the leftover crowd sang to third-year coach John Beilein, who celebrated his 52nd birthday Saturday.
"It showed me some strength from the team that we haven't seen in the last couple of games," Beilein said. "When your birthday's on February 5th and you're a basketball coach, you have a lot of bad birthdays, too."
West Virginia's 40 3-point attempts were a school record and the most in the Big East this season. It fell one shy of the conference record set by St. John's at Syracuse in 2003.
"WVU got a lot of second and third shots and I think that had a lot to do with their win ... the long rebounds that we talked about when they shoot 40 3s," Dixon said. "They seemed to make the shot after those rebounds in the second half."
Chevon Troutman scored 25 points for Pittsburgh (15-4, 5-3). Chris Taft scored 16 and Carl Krauser added 14 points and 15 assists.
The Panthers' four losses have been by a combined 14 points, and seven of their eight Big East games have been decided by five points or fewer.
Tyrone Sally added 19 points and Patrick Beilein had 14 for West Virginia.
After Pittsnogle gave the Mountaineers their seven-point lead in overtime, the Panthers were forced to foul the rest of the way. West Virginia, which went 18-of-20 from the free-throw line, made 11-of-13 in overtime to clinch the win.
West Virginia made just two of 17 3-point attempts in the first half but eventually heated up, sinking seven of them in a 10-minute stretch after halftime to erase an 11-point deficit.
Pittsnogle's 3-pointer put the Mountaineers ahead 52-51 with 7:09 left, their first lead since early in the game. Mike Gansey hit back-to-back long shots to push the lead to 58-53 with 4:23 left.
Pittsburgh, coming off a 20-point win over Providence on Monday, shot 50 percent from the floor for the game but went six minutes without a field goal until Taft's dunk with 3:15 left. His floater in the lane tied the score at 60 with 1:30 remaining.
The teams traded points the rest of the way, with Troutman's tip-in with four seconds left sending the game into overtime tied at 64.
