NEW YORK -- By the time reporters were allowed into the Pitt locker room Friday after the Panthers beat Marquette in a Big East Conference semifinal game, the Panthers had reined in their enthusiasm from another improbable victory and refocused their minds for one final mission: Finish the job.

That was the goal for the Panthers, who had been getting the reputation as a perennial big-game loser in the conference championship game. Last night, the upstart Panthers completed their mission with a 74-65 victory against top-seeded Georgetown before sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden.

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Today

• What: NCAA selection show.
• When: 6 p.m.
• TV: KDKA

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Pitt raised the Big East trophy at center court for the second time and ended years of frustration in this game. The Panthers had lost the past two Big East championship games and had won only once (2003) in six previous appearances.

The players brought the trophy over to Pitt fans that had made their way near the court, and the Panthers passed the trophy around like the Stanley Cup, each one of them getting to enjoy a moment with the hardware in their hands.

"We all looked at each other before the game," Pitt senior Keith Benjamin said. "There was no talking.

"Everyone knew what they were going to do. We were going to go out there and make all the plays we had to to win this game."

Pitt became the second team to win four games in four days to claim the conference title, joining a Syracuse that did it against the Panthers in 2006. This was an upset that almost no one saw coming. Georgetown had blitzed its first two opponents here, beating Villanova and West Virginia by 19 and 17 points, respectively.

The Hoyas were heavy favorites to repeat -- they had never lost a Big East tournament game as the No. 1 seed in 14 previous contests -- but the Panthers were not going to be denied.

"Everyone on TV was picking Georgetown," Pitt junior Levance Fields said. "And we came out and did it."

As the clock ticked to :00, Fields flung the ball to the rafters, putting an exclamation point on one of Pitt's most historic and satisfying victories in school history. Every member of Pitt's team got to cut down a piece of the net after the game. The final piece was left to trainer Tony Salesi, who paraded down the ladder with the net around his neck.

Fields, who spent so many hours with Salesi rehabilitating his fractured left foot in January and February, then gave Salesi a big bear hug. A few minutes before that, Fields and Mike Cook, whose season ended Dec. 20 when he blew out his left knee here in a game against Duke, embraced at midcourt.

They cried in each other's arms.

They spent countless hours going through therapy together.

"He's my best friend," Fields said. "I wish he was out here still playing. But he was celebrating with us like he was."

The Panthers avenged a 23-point loss a year ago in the championship game to the Hoyas and appear to be a team hitting on all cylinders entering the NCAA tournament.

They have won seven of their past eight games and should get a favorable seed when the NCAA selection committee unveils the 65-team field at 6 p.m. today on KDKA.

The Panthers could have enjoyed a blowout victory had they not missed so many free throws. Their inability to make foul shots kept Georgetown in the game. Pitt was 22 for 44 (50 percent) from the line for the game.

"We missed a lot of free throws all week here," Benjamin said. "We usually don't do that. But we missed more free throws than they attempted, so that means we were getting it done."

Everything else was perfect for the Panthers. They bullied the Hoyas under the basket, winning the rebounding battle, 41-29. They shot 45 percent from the field against a Georgetown team that was ranked No. 1 in Division I in field-goal percentage defense coming into the game. They scored 74 points against the No. 5 scoring defense, the most against the Hoyas since a Feb. 16 game at Syracuse in which they surrendered 77.

"We had a lot of emotion, knowing that we lost to them last year," said Pitt junior Sam Young, who was named the tournament's most outstanding player. "There was a lot going on in our heads. We knew we had to go out and get them."

Young scored 16 points and had six rebounds last night. For the tournament, he had 80 points and had 28 rebounds.

"Sam made all of the plays," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "I can't say enough about him."

The Panthers also received big efforts from DeJuan Blair, Ronald Ramon and Gilbert Brown. Ramon led the Panthers with 17 points. His 3-pointer with 3:45 remaining gave Pitt a 59-49 and finally gave the Panthers some breathing room amidst all of the missed free throws.

Blair had 10 points and 10 rebounds and was effective once again in not allowing Georgetown center Roy Hibbert to play a large role in the game. Hibbert scored 17 points, but he only scored six points in the first half and was not effective when the Hoyas were trying to play catch-up in the second half.

And Brown was huge off the bench. He scored 12 points, eight of which came in a little over a minute midway through the first half when the Panthers took their first lead of the game.