Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Aaron Gray goes high for a rebound in the second half yesterday.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon has watched Aaron Gray turn his ankle many times the past four seasons in practice. But, when his star center went down in a heap late in a 65-61 victory against Washington yesterday after grabbing a game-clinching rebound, Dixon made a beeline to the baseline to check on his hobbled 7-footer.

"I thought it was pretty bad," Dixon said afterward. "He's had ankle problems in the past. But he went down pretty bad on this one. I think this one could be worse [than the other sprains] from what I saw. I hope I'm wrong."

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Gray limped off the court after the injury and did not return in the final 10 seconds. He gingerly made his way to the locker room and will be re-evaluated today before determining whether he can play in the game at Seton Hall tomorrow night.

Gray's fall put a damper on an otherwise sweet bounce-back victory for the Panthers, who found ways to win despite another wretched shooting performance and being dominated on the boards.

The most telling statistic was a season-low six turnovers one game after committing a season-high 19 in a loss Monday to Louisville. Washington does not press like Louisville, but the Huskies came into the game forcing more than 15 turnovers a game.

The No. 7 Panthers (23-4, 10-2) also turned up the defensive pressure and forced Washington into 16 turnovers from which they scored 21 points. Pitt's ball security and opportunistic defense offset a 36 percent shooting performance and a 42-32 rebounding disadvantage.

"We felt last game against Louisville that we had unforced turnovers," point guard Levance Fields said. "We didn't feel like they made us turn the ball over. Nothing against them, but we just weren't taking care of the ball. Tonight, we didn't want that to affect us. We were taking care of the ball.

"We knew they would come in and pressure us and we wanted to do the same. We knew we had to turn up the intensity on defense and make them do things they didn't want to do, and it worked."

Washington's offense is built around freshman center Spencer Hawes and sophomore forward Jon Brockman. Those two combined for 25 points, but Hawes was 6 for 16 from the field and Brockman 6 for 13.

The Huskies (16-10) were able to stay close by shooting 7 for 11 from 3-point range and by getting second chances from their 15 offensive rebounds.

"We got outrebounded by 10, and that's something we can't have," Dixon said. "They're a very good rebounding team. That's something we were trying not to allow happen, and it did happen."

The Panthers didn't make their presence felt on the boards much, but Sam Young came up with one of the biggest rebounds when he skied for an offensive rebound with 42 seconds remaining and Pitt up, 62-59.

Young passed the ball back out top to Ronald Ramon, who was fouled with 29 seconds left. Ramon made both free throws to put the finishing touches on the victory.

"I thought we played very smart in the last minute and half," Dixon said. "The smart thing Sam did was throw it out to one of the guards. We talked the past couple of days about playing smart and recognizing things. We executed pretty well at the end of the game."

In a game where Gray tied a season-low with five points, it was up to his supporting cast to take over the scoring load. Junior Mike Cook had his best game in more than a month, contributing a team-high 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting. Fields added 14 points, Ramon 11 and Young 10.

"When your star isn't scoring, someone else has to step up," Cook said. "We're fortunate enough to have a lot of guys on the perimeter and our [power forward] to step up and make shots. Aaron doesn't mind kicking it out. That's how unselfish he is. We know when he's struggling we want to step up and help him just like he helps us when we're not putting the ball in the basket."

The score was tied at 47-47 with less than eight minutes remaining, and it was looking like Washington was going to seize the momentum. The Huskies played great defense and almost forced a shot-clock violation, but Ramon stepped back and made a deep 3-pointer with a defender in his face with one second left on the shot clock.

Pitt never trailed after that, although Washington cut the lead to one three times. The final time came when Hawes scored over Young with 3:09 remaining. But on Pitt's next possession, Gray notched his second field goal of the game, giving him the distinction of being the 34th player in school history to score 1,000 points but more importantly giving the Panthers some much-needed cushion for the final minutes.

"We knocked down free throws and made some very good decisions at the end and finished things off," Dixon said.

NOTES -- The Panthers were 19 for 25 from the free-throw line and made five of six in the final 1:40. ... Washington went to line eight times and made six. ... Washington led by seven in the first half, but Pitt went on a 16-8 run over the final 8:20 of the half to take a 31-28 lead at intermission.