PITTSBURGH -- At a time when most teams are playing to extend their season, No. 11 Louisville knows it is finishing its own. Due to its self-imposed postseason, the program is only playing for the ACC regular-season title.

To make matters worse, coach Rick Pitino was without a key member of his frontcourt in Ray Spalding, who joined fellow big men Anas Mahmoud and Mangok Mathiang on the sideline Wednesday.

Pittsburgh led the Cardinals for more than half of Wednesday's game, but Louisville showed the spirit and attitude that makes Pitino so proud of this year's group. Four players scored in double figures and the Cardinals outlasted the Panthers in the game's final minutes to notch a 67-60 victory in Pittsburgh.

"We were just really undermanned tonight and they played beautiful basketball," Pitino said. "I can't be any prouder. I've coached some Final Four teams, national championship teams, but I haven't been any prouder of a basketball team than this one."

The Cardinals led for a total of 10 minutes, 6 seconds Wednesday, but used a 9-2 run in the final three minutes to win a game that featured eight ties and nine lead changes.

Guard Quentin Snider led Louisville (22-6, 11-4 ACC) with 14 points. Guard Damion Lee scored 13 points while forwards Deng Adel and Chinanu Onuaku chipped in 12 and 10 points, respectively.

Lee echoed his coach's sentiments as the Cardinals moved within a game of first-place North Carolina in the ACC.

"We fight," Lee said. "This team's been fighting all year long. From the beginning of the year until now. ... We all just fight, it doesn't matter what the circumstances are."

The Panthers led 48-40 with nine minutes to play but Lee hit a 3-pointer to spark the Cardinals. Louisville made nine consecutive shots to end the game and close out a hard-fought road victory.

"We just had to combat their run with a run of our own," Lee said. "Make sure we get some stops."

Forward Ryan Luther led Pittsburgh (19-8, 8-7) with 17 points off the bench. Forward Jamel Artis scored 13 points, guard James Robinson added 12 points and forward Michael Young finished with 10.

A jumper by Artis and Luther's tip-in gave Pitt a 41-40 lead with 13 minutes left. The Panthers held Louisville scoreless for more than six minutes and opened up their largest lead at 48-40.

Lee made his second 3-pointer to end the Cardinals' 6:19 scoring drought and an 11-0 Pitt run with 8:29 left. A baseline drive and dunk by forward Deng Adel followed by guard David Levitch's 3-pointer tied it 48-48.

The teams combined to shoot perfectly from the field over a four-minute stretch and as they traded baskets, Pitt and Louisville were tied at 58 at the game's final media timeout with 2:51 to play.

Levitch made his second 3-pointer out of the timeout and Louisville never relinquished the lead.

"We've always got to play better defense," Luther said. "They scored on nine of their last possessions so you can't win many games when you give up the last nine buckets."

After the Panthers held Syracuse to 37 percent shooting in one of their best defensive games of the season Saturday, Pitt yielded a 51 percent clip to Louisville Wednesday.

"At the end of the day we didn't defend well enough again to get it done against a good team," Panthers coach Jamie Dixon said. "It's not hard to figure out and we got it done the other day, but one day is not enough."

Pittsburgh started aggressively and made its first three shots to jump out to a 9-2 lead after three minutes. Louisville responded to make five shots in a row and held Pitt without a basket for nearly five minutes.

Guard Donovan Mitchell's transition floater at the 13:40 gave the Cardinals their first lead and came in the midst of a 12-1 run that put Louisville up 14-10.

Luther's 3-pointer broke a five-minute stretch in which Pitt went without a basket and sparked a run that put the Panthers back on top 20-16.

Snider's 3-pointer with 56 seconds left in the first half regained the lead for Louisville, and the Cardinals were on top 33-29 at halftime.

NOTES: Louisville broke a two-game road losing streak, dropping their previous road contests at Duke and Notre Dame. ... Pittsburgh and Louisville entered Wednesday's game as the ACC's top two teams in rebounding margin at plus-8.5 and plus-8.4 per game, respectively. Pittsburgh won the battle of the boards Wednesday 34-28. ... Pittsburgh is 0-6 against ranked teams this season. The Panthers have beaten a ranked team in each season under coach Jamie Dixon, and likely have only one more chance when they host No. 15 Duke on Sunday.