Pitt’s arc in December has been something else.

On the last day of November, the Panthers missed a golden opportunity against the Golden Gophers of Minnesota in a late-game collapse, and they pulled the same show four days later in the ACC opener at Virginia.

The next week, Pitt showed it could close a game with a late win over Colgate at the Petersen Events Center. But any momentum that win provided was lost in the first half of the Panthers’ next game when they dug themselves too big of a hole to escape against Monmouth last Sunday.

Then, on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, the month took another turn, as Pitt not only battled St. John’s to a close score late in the game but made key plays down the stretch to knock off the Red Storm 59-57.

Pitt improved to 4-7 overall with the win, while St. John’s fell to 8-3. The game was the Panthers’ third in the Gotham Classic; they finished the event with a 2-1 record.

Led by a career-high 20 points from Jamarius Burton, Pitt overcame an uncharacteristically quiet game from John Hugley to secure the win. Hugley scored just seven points against St. John’s after reaching double figures in eight of Pitt’s 10 games this season, including each of the last five.

In lieu of scoring from Hugley, the Panthers got a boost from Mo Gueye, who had a season-high 15 on 4-of-8 shooting. Gueye also turned in a perfect 6-of-6 performance from the free throw line, while Burton was 9-of-10 from the stripe.

Pitt trailed St. John’s at halftime 35-31, and the Red Storm pushed that lead to seven at 41-34 five minutes into the second half. The Panthers chipped away at the lead, though, breaking off a 11-3 run to take a one-point lead on a three-point shot from Burton with just under 12 minutes to play.

St. John’s retook the lead when Pitt went cold after the Burton three, with the Panthers failing to make a basket for nearly seven minutes until Hugley made a hook shot to cut the Red Storm’s lead to two at 50-48. Pitt couldn’t crack through to get back on top for a few more minutes until Burton sank a pair of free throws to take a 56-55 lead at the 2:00 mark.

What followed was a series of defensive stops and offensive miscues. Over the next 104 seconds, Pitt blocked two shots, each team lost the ball on a traveling call and neither side could make a basket.

Finally, with 16 seconds left, St. John’s fouled Will Jeffress and sent him to the line. The sophomore sank just one of his free throws but Red Storm center Joel Soriano grabbed the rebound on the miss; at the other end, St. John’s guard Dylan Addae-Wusu went to the line after drawing a foul on Hugley.

Addae-Wusu made both shots to tie the game at 57-all, but Burton sank a pull-up jump shot in the final seconds to secure the win.

St. John’s was playing without junior forward Julian Champagnie, the brother of former Pitt standout Justin Champagnie. Julian Champagnie led the Red Storm in scoring and rebounding through the teams first 10 games, averaging 20.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.

In addition to Burton’s 20 and Gueye’s 15, Pitt got six points, six rebounds and three assists from Femi Odukale. The Panthers were also a sparkling 23-of-28 (82.1%) from the free throw line - a key statistical improvement for a team that hadn’t shot better than 75% in any game this season.

Pitt will be back on the court Tuesday afternoon when the Panthers host Jacksonville for a 2 pm tipoff at the Petersen Events Center.