A.J. Price said he never doubted Connecticut would beat West Virginia, not even when the Mountaineers trimmed a 17-point deficit to three late in the second half.

Price scored 24 points, and the 15th-ranked Huskies held on for a 79-71 victory yesterday at XL Center in Hartford, Conn., their 12th win in the past 13 games.

"We know how good we are," said Price, who had five 3-pointers. "We know what we have here. We know if we stay true to what we do, we're going to win. It's just staying mentally tough."

Jeff Adrien had 17 points and 10 rebounds -- his 16th double-double of the season -- for Connecticut (23-6, 12-4).

Joe Alexander had a career-high 32 points for West Virginia (20-9, 9-7), including 20 in the second half as he tried rally the Mountaineers from a 60-43 deficit.

West Virginia scored 20 of the next 26 points, cutting the Connecticut lead to 66-63 on a goaltending call against Stanley Robinson with just over four minutes to play. Alexander had eight points during that stretch.

"We showed we can play with anybody, especially on the road," Alexander said. "We just didn't play strong in the first half for a few minutes, and that really hurt us."

Robinson hit a 3-pointer with 3:30 to play to push Connecticut's lead back to eight, and Craig Austrie made an off-balance runner to give the Huskies a 74-65 lead. Hasheem Thabeet then blocked a shot on the other end, and Connecticut hung on for the win.

It was Thabeet's third block of the game, giving him 245 for his career and tying Donyell Marshall for second on Connecticut's all-time list.

Ten of the wins in the Huskies' run have been by single digits.

• Georgetown 70, Marquette 68: Roy Hibbert and Jonathan Wallace scored 20 points each to lift No. 11 Georgetown to an overtime victory against No. 21 host Marquette (21-7, 11-6). It was the fourth consecutive victory for Georgetown (24-4, 14-3), which came into the game tied with No. 13 Louisville for first in the Big East. The Cardinals play host to Villanova today. The Hoyas have won 11 of their past 13 games, with the losses coming at Louisville and Syracuse. Wesley Matthews tied his career high with 22 points for Marquette, which had a five-game winning streak snapped.

• St. John's 65, Seton Hall 62: Anthony Mason's 3-pointer with 1.7 seconds left gave St. John's (11-17, 5-11) a victory against Seton Hall (7-12, 7-9) that stopped the Red Storm's five-game losing streak. Mason finished with 24 points and went 5 for 7 from 3-point range.

• South Florida 54, Rutgers 52: Dominique Jones' breakaway bank shot with 37 seconds left broke a tie and gave South Florida (12-17, 3-13) a win against Rutgers (10-20, 2-15), ending a 23-game losing streak on the road that spanned almost three years in the Big East for the Bulls.