Pittsburgh 73, St. John’s 59: Ashton Gibbs found his shooting stroke from long range and finished with 20 points as the Panthers survived the first round of the Big East tournament and sent local favorites St. John’s home early.

Nasir Robinson added 15 points and eight rebounds for Pittsburgh (17-15), which had lost its first Big East tournament game in each of the previous three seasons.

The 13th-seeded Panthers, who briefly reached the top 10 early in the season, likely need to win five games in five days and take the championship to make it back to the NCAA tournament. They will face No. 5 seed Georgetown in the second round on Wednesday.

Pittsburgh shot just 37 percent in the first half on Tuesday but got 15 points from Gibbs to grab the lead. The senior guard hit a 3-pointer on each of the first two possessions of the game to set the tone and scored nine straight for the Panthers at one point in the half.

Robinson got going after the break, scoring on consecutive possessions to push the Panthers’ lead to 56-42 with 8:51 left.

The 12th-seeded Red Storm (13-19) never managed to get it back to single digits.

GAME NOTEBOOK: St. John’s freshman Moe Harkless scored a game-high 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting and added nine rebounds … Red Storm F God’sgift Achiuwa grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds … Pittsburgh has won two of its last eight games - both against St. John’s.