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With 1:30 left in overtime of Pittsburgh's 76-69 win over Louisville in the Big East Tournament on Thursday, the Cardinals trailed by four. Louisville's Andre McGee attempted a wide-open 3-pointer that went long. Two of the game's most important players -- both reserves -- were in on the rebound. Louisville's Earl Clark got it, but the Panthers' Gilbert Brown stripped him and recovered the ball.

Seconds later, Levance Fields got the roll on a tear-dropper that gave Pitt a six-point lead with 1:08 to play, and the Panthers were on their way to eliminating Louisville from its third straight Big East Tournament. And while stars like Fields and Sam Young will grab most of the headlines, reserves like Clark and Brown would form the character of the event.

Pittsburgh saw its backcourt get into foul trouble early in the first half with both Keith Benjamin and Levance Fields picking up two quickies before many of those attending had a chance to put an impression in their purple or teal seats.

This left Jamie Dixon with no choice but to substitute two freshmen to hold down the fort until the clock wound down enough for the starters' safe re-entry. Though neither Brad Wanamaker nor Brown provided many tangible positives in their combined 24 minutes on the floor in the first half, their ability to soak up minutes and -- to put it bluntly -- not mess up kept Pittsburgh in the game throughout the opening 20 minutes.

"We had the foul trouble early," said Dixon after his team's victory, "but got performances from everybody. Bradley Wanamaker gave us great minutes. Tyrell Biggs, Gilbert Brown and our bench were terrific for us, and that was big."

Brown finished the game with eight points and eight rebounds in 36 minutes; Biggs added five and three in 17; and Wanamaker had a rebound in 13 minutes, all in the first half.

While Pittsburgh used its bench by necessity rather than preference, Louisville prefers to leverage its depth no matter the foul situation or score. There are several reasons why, and they are Earl Clark, Derrick Caracter and Edgar Sosa, a luxury of riches that few teams in America possess on their bench. Clark and Caracter combined for 30 points, mostly on lay-ins, dunks and put-backs. Sosa added a 3-pointer and three assists in the first half, but his second-half contributions were sparse.

After a first half in which 17 players saw at least seven minutes of game action, the second half started with Benjamin picking up his fourth foul in the first minute, thrusting Brown back into the action. The red-shirt freshman followed a fast-break lay-in off an in-bounds with a high-flying stuff of Jerry Smith's fast break lay-up attempt and a dunk off a feed from Fields, all major parts of a Pittsburgh run that saw the Panthers take a 53-45 lead with just under nine to play.

Then it was time for Clark to get his team back into the game. After Terrence Williams stuck a 3-pointer, Clark entered for Williams. He rebounded a missed free throw by David Padgett, got the ball back and hit a long jumper. Then Clark rebounded a Smith missed jumper -- one of Earl's nine boards in 28 minutes -- and made the follow despite getting hit by Biggs. The subsequent free-throw gave Louisville a 54-53 lead to cap a 9-0 run.

The tete-a-tete of two reserves thrust into key rolls was not over. After being fouled on a powerful drive, Gilbert Brown delivered two free-throws to give Pitt a 58-56 lead, but Clark responded with a thunderous dunk on the next possession. With less than three minutes to play and the score tied, Caracter, the backup center, pushed off to grab a rebound and score, giving the Cards a 60-58 lead, and then Clark tied the score at 62 with 20 seconds left on another second-chance bucket.

That was a swan song of sorts for the Louisville reserve big men who had done so much to get the game into the extra session. The overtime was owned by Louisville fouls, Ronald Ramon buckets and Fields free-throws. Clark fouled out with 56 seconds left -- soon after getting stripped of that fateful rebound. The sophomore wouldn't be around for the conclusion of the event he helped to shape, and his team won't be around for the rest of this weekend.

Now Brown and Pittsburgh will find out whether its depth will be good enough to get them a third win in as many nights. The good news is that DeJuan Blair looked much better against Louisville, scoring 16 points and grabbing eight rebounds after getting shut out by Cincinnati the night before.

"I have tremendous confidence in him -- I always have," said Dixon. "Sixteen points, eight rebounds against two of the best big guys in the country says a lot about him."

Blair was able to mentally revive overnight.

"I just went in my room and just thought about it, thought about what I did wrong, what I could do better [tonight], and I adjusted to everything I did," said Blair. "So my shots were better, and I took my time being patient in the post."

The sparing minutes that Dixon used his freshman big man against the Bearcats may have kept him fresh for Louisville's waves of forwards on Thursday. But Dixon's rotation was stretched to its limit in order to pull off the upset over the 13th-ranked Cardinals. The coach will need Brown and the rest of his bench to continue to contribute if the Panthers are to reach their seventh Big East Tournament final in eight years.