HARTFORD, Conn. -- Pitt's game at Connecticut yesterday had an all too familiar ending for the Panthers in more ways than one. For the third time in the past four weeks, the Panthers had a chance to win or send the game into overtime in the final minute , and, for the third time, the Panthers went home a loser.

And like most games when Connecticut has beaten Pitt, the Huskies' point guard played the leading role.

Like Khalid El Amin and Taliek Brown before him, A.J. Price stuck the dagger in Pitt's heart in a classic, old-style Big East Conference game at the XL Center.

Price scored 21 points to lead the Huskies past Pitt, 60-53, before the first sellout crowd of the season at a Connecticut game. Price scored four of those points in the final 69 seconds to give the Huskies (16-5, 6-3 Big East) their fifth consecutive victory.

"It was disappointing for us to be in a position to win the game at the end," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "It got down to them making some big plays and making some big shots. At the end, it's a tie game with two minutes left. It comes down to getting a stop, and we didn't get a stop. You can point to different parts [of the game]. We had opportunities. We just didn't get it done at the end."

No. 18 Pitt fell to 17-5 overall and 5-4 in Big East play. The Panthers also failed in the final minute at Villanova and Cincinnati last month, two games that were decided by a combined four points.

Connecticut scored nine points on its final four possessions while the Panthers scored two on their final three. The score was tied, 51-51, with 2:31 remaining after DeJuan Blair made two free throws. On Connecticut's next possession, Craig Austrie made a 3-pointer to give the Huskies the lead, 54-51.

Gilbert Brown was fouled on a 3-point attempt on Pitt's next possession and made two of three free-throw attempts. But Price restored Connecticut's 3-point lead by making a layup with 1:09 to play.

Ronald Ramon and Sam Young, who led the Panthers with 18 points, missed badly on 3-point attempts on Pitt's next two possessions while the Huskies made four consecutive free throws to secure the victory.

"It seems like we're right there," a frustrated Young said afterward. "We're just missing pieces to the puzzle. We're trying to put it together, even though we have missing pieces. It's hard. Sometimes, it doesn't work out in your favor."

Pitt completed the first half of its Big East schedule one game over .500 without its point guard and leader, Levance Fields, who has been out since late December with a fractured left foot. The Panthers must play at least two more games without Fields, who said he would like to return for a Feb. 15 road game at Marquette.

As much as the final two minutes hurt Pitt against Connecticut, the final seven minutes of the first half likely had as much to do with the loss. The Panthers led for all but 17 minutes in the first half.

They were ahead by eight, 19-11, with 7:32 remaining. But over those final seven minutes, Connecticut held Pitt without a field goal and outscored the Panthers, 11-3, to make it 22-22 at the intermission.

"Foul trouble hurt us in the first half," Dixon said. "Ronald [Ramon] being out was key. We have to play through that and find ways to win. We have to keep our guys out of foul trouble. That's a big key.

"Whether it's the guards or big guys, we have to stay away from that."

Ramon had to sit on the bench for 13 minutes in the first half after picking up his second foul. He came back to play 18 minutes in the second half, but the opportunity to blow the game open had passed.

Neither team had more than a four-point lead for the first 18-plus minutes of the second half. The score was tied seven times, and the lead changed hands 10 times in what was an entertaining, albeit defensive-minded, game.

It wasn't until Price made two free throws with 37 seconds left that the Huskies pushed the lead to five for the first time.

"It felt like deja vu out there," Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said, reminiscing about past games against Pitt. "That was a great Big East game. It was a war."

Connecticut won the war of attrition in the second half. The Huskies scored 38 points in the second half and shot 45.2 percent against the leg-weary Panthers, who saw four of their starters play 33 minutes or more.