NCAA Game Summary - Boston College vs. Pittsburgh

New York, NY (Basketball News) - Carl Krauser scored 18 points and keyed a late run that allowed sixth-ranked Pittsburgh to pull away for a 62-53 victory over Boston College in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.

Jaron Brown added 11 points and Chris Taft contributed 10, as the top-seeded Panthers (29-3) advanced to the tournament final for the fourth straight year. Pittsburgh lost to Boston College and Connecticut in its first two trips to the title game before beating the Huskies last year.

The Panthers will again face UConn on Saturday for this year’s crown, as the Huskies advanced with an 84-67 victory over Villanova. Only Syracuse, with five straight trips to the title game from 1986-90, made more consecutive Big East Tournament final appearances than Pittsburgh.

"I’ll let the other guys figure out our accomplishment and total up the things," said Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon. "These guys don’t worry about that stuff; they worry about the next game."

Boston College (23-9), which beat Georgetown and Syracuse to reach the semifinals, will await its NCAA Tournament seeding on Sunday. Craig Smith scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Eagles.

Pittsburgh led for most of the second half and took a 48-42 edge when Mark McCarroll drained a three-pointer as the shot clock was running out with 6 1/2 minutes left.

Boston College responded with eight of the next 10 points and pulled within 50-48 on a three-pointer by Jermaine Watson with 3:20 to play. It was the first shot the Eagles made from beyond the arc in two games.

After a trade of baskets kept it a two-point game, Krauser hit a floater in the lane to extend the Panther advantage to four.

"I wanted to make a big shot," Krauser said. "I know we needed a bucket and I just wanted to come down and make that shot."

Smith then missed inside for Boston College and Krauser was fouled on a three- point attempt at the other end.

The Panther point guard drained all three shots from the stripe to give his team a 57-50 advantage with 49 seconds to play.

The Eagles couldn’t recover.

"I thought our patience in the second half was a big key in getting better shots in the second half," said Dixon.

A three-pointer by Brown ignited a 6-0 run to give Pittsburgh a 10-4 lead just under seven minutes into the game. The Panthers maintained a six-point margin at 14-8 midway through the opening half.

Boston College followed with an 8-2 burst and tied it at 16-16 on a layup by Uka Agbai, but Pittsburgh regained the lead and held a 21-18 edge with just under six minutes left.

Watson then scored four points to key an 8-1 run to close the half for the Eagles. Two free throws by Smith gave Boston College a 26-22 lead heading to the break.

Smith hit six free throws and scored 10 points in the first half. The Eagles made just 7-of-21 shots from the field, but hit all 12 of their free throws in the opening 20 minutes.

Pittsburgh scored the first four points of the second half to tie it, then used a string of six straight points a few minutes later to open a 33-30 lead.

"They are a very good basketball team," BC head coach Al Skinner said about Pittsburgh. "But it’s an indication of the quality of basketball team that we were, and that if we can come out and learn from this experience, I don’t know if we’re going to find anybody that defensively is tougher than this, and if we can learn from this and handle this situation and try to grow on it, it’s going to help us in the tournament, I’d like to believe."