NEW YORK -- Sam Young has won plenty of games for Pitt this season with his offense. Playing defense, on the other hand, hasn't been his strong suit.

But last night, Young made some huge defensive plays that helped preserve a 70-64 victory against Cincinnati in the first round of the Big East Conference tournament. With the victory, the Panthers (23-9) move on to a quarterfinal-round game tonight against No. 2 seed Louisville (24-7).

Young had three blocks in the final three minutes when Cincinnati was making a furious comeback. His final block, with Pitt up by four with 20 seconds left, was the final nail in the coffin for Cincinnati.

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Today

• Game: Pitt (23-9) vs. Louisville(24-7) in a Big East quarterfinal game.
• TV/Radio: ESPN.
• When: 7 p.m.

The other three Big East quarterfinals:

• Georgetown vs. Villanova, noon
• UConn vs. W. Virginia, 2:30
• Notre Dame vs. Marquette-Seton Hall winner, 9:30

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"Although I'm not known for that, I have made some plays on defense in the past, like the Syracuse game,"

Young said, "For me, it doesn't matter how I win the game. I just want to win the game any way possible."

It was fitting that defense keyed this victory as so many others have in the past at Madison Square Garden for the Panthers, who are attempting to reach the Big East championship game for the seventh time in eight years.

Pitt had allowed eight consecutive opponents to shoot 42 percent or better from the field. But last night the Panthers buckled down and had their best defensive performance in more than a month.

The Panthers held Cincinnati to 39-percent shooting and outrebounded the Bearcats, 37-36. Cincinnati had outrebounded Pitt in the two previous meetings this season, including a game at Petersen Events Center two weeks ago when the Bearcats won the rebounding battle by 12.

In that game, Cincinnati senior forward John Williamson had 27 points and nine rebounds. Young was responsible for guarding him. He drew the assignment again last night. This time, Williamson only scored eight points and contributed five rebounds.

Young did his usual part on offense, too. He scored a team-high 21 points to lead a balanced offensive attack. Keith Benjamin added 15 points, Ronald Ramon 12 and Levance Fields 10.

The Panthers needed Young to play one of his best all-around games because they received next to nothing from freshman center DeJuan Blair, who scored just two points in 24 minutes. With virtually no inside offensive presence, Dixon turned to his guards, and the streaky outside shooters came through with eight 3-pointers.

Ramon was 4 for 7 from behind the 3-point arc and Benjamin 2 for 4 as the Panthers collected their 16th victory in their past 22 Big East tournament games.

The Panthers needed those points because Cincinnati guard Deonta Vaughn put the Bearcats on his back and almost led a miraculous comeback. Pitt had a nine-point lead with 9:34 remaining, but Vaughn made four 3-pointers in 2:12 to cut Pitt's lead to 56-54 with 6:54 remaining.

Pitt rebuilt the lead to nine with 1:11 remaining, but Vaughn and the Bearcats kept fighting. Vaughn drove to the basket and converted a three-point play to cut the lead to six. After Ramon missed two free throws at the other end, Williamson made two free throws to cut the lead to four with 59 seconds left.

Fields was fouled and made one of two free throws for a 67-62 lead. Once again, Vaughn drove to the basket and was fouled. He made both free throws to make it 67-64 with 41 seconds left.

Fields was fouled again and made one of two from the line. Vaughn drove to the basket on Cincinnati's next possession and was poised to draw the Bearcats to within two, but Young leapt and blocked his shot to seal the victory.

"That was key," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "We were doing some different things. We wanted Vaughn to drive to the basket. Sam became the help guy, and that enabled him to get some blocks."

Vaughn finished with 30 points, with the final 22 coming in the final 11:17. Despite the big number, Dixon thought the Panthers defended him relatively well, and the final statistics prove his point.

Vaughn was 8 for 25 from the field. He took almost half of his team's shots.

Pitt and Louisville played one time in the regular season. The Cardinals beat the Panthers, 75-73, at Petersen Events Center Feb. 24. If the Panthers want to advance to the semifinal round they'll have to keep up the defensive intensity that they played with last night.

Louisville dismantled the Panthers in the first meeting, connecting on 58 percent of their shots.

"We just want to play hard," Benjamin said. "The last game was a fight inside of our building. We have to rebound the ball better than we did last game. We can play tougher defense than we did the last game. We're going to do the same things we did tonight, hold the numbers down, Usually, when we do those things we get wins."