Mar 9, 2006 By Stephen Flinn For The 3 min read

NEW YORK – A first-half blowout turned into a tighter game than Pittsburgh would have liked, but the Panthers held on for a 61-56 victory over Louisville Wednesday night in the opening round of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. Pittsburgh squandered a 28-point first-half lead, and allowed Louisville to eventually cut the deficit to three points when Taquan Dean hit a long three-pointer with 25 seconds remaining.

Carl Krauser, who led all scorers with 19 points, and Antonio Graves each made one free throw to give Pitt a five-point lead, but a jumper by Louisville’s Andre McGee pulled the Cardinals back to within three points with .9 seconds to go.

Pittsburgh’s Ronald Ramon then put the game away when he sank a pair of free throws.

The Panthers will now face West Virginia, the tournament’s No. 3 seed, tonight in the quarterfinals at 9:30.

The sixth-seeded Panthers improved to 21-6, and will face a Mountaineer squad they split with during the regular season.

Louisville was fighting for an NCAA Tournament bid, but now looks like it’s heading to the NIT.

The Panthers took a 39-16 lead into the half, and after leading by as many as 28 points before the break. The Cardinals went on a furious run midway through the second half, and cut Pitt’s lead to single digits with less than a minute left before the key Panther free throws in the last 25 seconds.

The Panthers shot at a torrid pace for most of the first half. Pitt’s hot shooting combined with Louisville’s cold spell in the same time frame allowed Pitt to burst out of the gate and open up a 16-0 lead nine minutes into the game.

Pittsburgh shot 50 percent from the field (15-30), including 57 percent from the three-point line (4-7), in the first half, while Louisville shot 21 percent from the field (5-24) and 25 percent from the three-point line.

Krauser scored 13 first-half points.

Louisville didn’t score a field goal in the first half until Dean hit a three-pointer almost 11 minutes in, and that basket made it 22-5.

The Cardinals threatened to break the record for the lowest-scoring first half in Big East Tournament history which was previously held by Georgetown when they scored only 14 points against Seton Hall in 2001 tournament.

Louisville closed the half with a 9-2 run though to close the gap at 37-16 and dodge the record books, but Aaron Gray tipped in a Krauser miss with four seconds left to give Pitt a 23-point halftime-lead.

The Panthers opened up the second half with a 4-0 run to extend their lead to 43-16, but only scored eight points in the next 10 minutes, including a six-minute stretch when they did not score.

Meanwhile, Louisville woke up on offense and tore off a 14-4 run midway through the second half to close the gap to 47-30 with seven minutes left..