As nice as the offensive fireworks were in the past three games the Pitt Panthers were feeling a bit out of character. Prolific offense overcame some porous defense.

Pitt got back to its defensive roots last night and shut down West Virginia, 70-59, at the Petersen Events Center. The No. 4 Panthers (22-2, 9-2 Big East) swept the season series from the Mountaineers (16-8, 5-6) for the second time in the past three seasons and have now won six of the past seven in this rivalry.

"This is something more like an old Pitt game," senior point guard Levance Fields said. "We still have to work on it. They still shot 40 percent. Our [goal] is to be below 40 percent. We still have to get a couple of percents down to be where we need to be."

But it was better than the past three games when Notre Dame, Robert Morris and DePaul shot 44, 57 and 47 percent from the field. The Mountaineers made 40.4 percent of their shots from the field.

The Panthers scored 90 points or more in each of the previous three games and won them all, but they never felt like they were playing a complete game.

"Obviously, when you win it doesn't matter," Fields said. "I like to run a little more and play a little quicker. But I think everyone did a good job of understanding this was more of a grind-out game. I'd rather run, but tonight it was good to see that we can still win like this."

The Panthers had to adapt because of the way the game was officiated. Fields and Blair picked up two fouls in the first half. Fields had to sit for nine minutes in the half and Blair sat for the final 15 minutes.

West Virginia had the same problem. Alex Ruoff and Da'Sean Butler, the Mountaineers' top two scorers, picked up two early fouls and had to sit for long stretches in the first 20 minutes. Butler and Ruoff fouled out in the second half, and Butler, who averages 18 points per game, only scored four in 18 minutes.

"It was a strange game," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "Their two best players were in foul trouble and two of our guys were. And yet we played through it. That's a tough thing to play through, but we found a way.

"You have to find ways to win. You're going to have guys in foul trouble. They did and we did. You have to find guys to step up, and we did."

The difference was that Pitt had Sam Young to pick up the scoring slack, and the Mountaineers had no one capable of filling in their scoring gaps. Young scored 20 points and had seven rebounds to lead the Panthers. Fields came back strong and finished with 13 points and seven assists.

"When he's playing within the offense the shots will be available and he plays much better," Fields said of Young. "When he's playing by himself, that's where you see him struggle, when he deviates from the offense."

Blair, who averaged 24 points and 14 rebounds per game in the previous three games, played just 16 minutes and contributed eight points and nine rebounds. Dixon did not put Blair back into the game after Blair picked up a technical foul with 8:35 remaining for saying something to referee Karl Hess after he was whistled for a charge.

"I don't know what happened," Dixon said. "Those are things you don't want to happen. You have to learn from it."

Pitt led by 12 points at the time and the technical did not hurt the Panthers. Ruoff only hit one of the two ensuing free throws, and Pitt scored eight of the next 10 points to put the game out of reach.

Despite Blair spending more time on the bench than on the floor, the Panthers managed to win the rebounding battle, 39-23. The Mountaineers beat the Panthers on the boards in Morgantown last month.

The Panthers also got to the free-throw line 19 times and shot 62 percent from the field in the second half to close out the victory.

"I liked how we did it," Dixon said. "We had guys in foul trouble. We won the battle of the boards by 16. We grinded it out in the second half."

NOTES -- Reserve Brad Wanamaker played a career-high 25 minutes and was 2 for 3 from 3-point range. ... Pitt was 14 for 19 from the free-throw line and 4 for 13 from 3-point range. ... West Virginia was 5 for 16 from behind the 3-point arc.