Tray Woodall continues to be the spark for suddenly red-hot Pittsburgh. Woodall scored a game-high 24 points as the Panthers defeated West Virginia 72-66 Monday at WVU Coliseum for their third straight Big East victory.

Playing in his fourth game since returning from a groin and abdominal strain, Woodall scored 16 of his points in the first half for the Panthers (14-9, 3-7 Big East), who started 0-7 in conference.

Ashton Gibbs finished with 15 points and Nasir Robinson added nine on 4-of-4 from the field.

Pittsburgh led by as many as 10 points early in the second half, but the Mountaineers (16-7, 5-5 Big East) pulled within 56-54 on Kevin Jones’ layup with 7:30 remaining. Jones, a senior forward, finished with a team-high 21 points and 13 rebounds.

The Panthers, however, responded with a basket on the next possession and maintained a two-possession lead the rest of the way. West Virginia, which shot 40 percent, went four minutes without a basket late and never drew closer than four over the final five minutes.

Darryl Bryant finished with 14 points and seven assists and Deniz Kilicli added 12 points and nine rebounds for the Mountaineers, who who lost their third straight Big East game. They also suffered their fourth straight defeat against the Panthers.