BLACKSBURG, Va. - West Virginia came to Virginia Tech with a chance to stay in the Big East championship race.

The Mountaineers left with that and more Wednesday night after holding off the No. 13 Hokies 21-18.

"People may start to notice us," second-year coach Rich Rodriguez said. "We can't go out and trumpet our own horn. We just have to play well when we have the opportunity, and playing well on TV helps. This ought to get us some national exposure."

To some, it was proof that the Mountaineers (8-3, 5-1 Big East) are back after a 3-8 season that left the team in disarray and needing a spark.

The way the Mountaineers won won't hurt, either. They ran for 263 yards against a defense ranked fifth in the nation against the run, and held up under pressure with the game on the line as the clock wound down.

First, West Virginia stopped the Hokies' "Untouchables" running game on three straight tries from inside the 1-yard line, stopping them on downs.

Then, Brian King intercepted Bryan Randall's second-down pass into the end zone with 12 seconds to play, sending the Hokies (8-3, 3-3) to their third heartbreaking loss in a row.

"This is a big thing," West Virginia linebacker James Davis said. "We needed to show everybody around the world that we've got a good team."

West Virginia can gain a share of the Big East title if No. 17 Pittsburgh beats top-ranked Miami on Thursday night, the Mountaineers then beat the Panthers on Nov. 30 and everything else goes as expected.

"We're still in contention, as crazy as that sounds," Rodriguez said.

And they are playing as well as most anybody, having won five of six games behind the nation's No. 2 rushing offense and an improving defense.

Quincy Wilson ran for 125 yards on just 11 carries, including a 42-yard touchdown run.

West Virginia also struck quickly, with touchdown drives covering 80 yards in five plays, 70 yards in five plays and 86 yards in six plays.

That all set it up for the defense, and it also came through.

"I've never been so proud of a defense," Rodriguez said. "The crowd was pushing them. They had all the momentum. ... To win it like we won it has got to give our defense a great deal of confidence."

Wilson's big run, with 4:09 left in the third quarter, gave West Virginia a 21-10 lead, and some breathing room it sorely needed.

"I was tired," starter Avon Cobourne said. "I said `Go ahead, Q. Get in there.' Then the first play, he busts it. I was like, `Thank you.' A lot of people saw this game. It was a program-builder."

On the goal-line stand, set up when Lee Suggs ran 8 yards on first-and-goal from the 9, West Virginia stopped Suggs on second and fourth down. Suggs said he got his arm in, but the officials didn't agree.

After gaining only 2 yards on three straight rushes, West Virginia punter Mark Fazzolari stepped out of the end zone for a safety with 2:30 remaining, pulling the Hokies within a field goal of forcing overtime.

The Mountaineers' strategy almost backfired when Todd James' free kick went out of bounds, giving the Hokies the ball at midfield with 2:26 left, and Randall quickly drove his team to the 11 with a chance to win it.

Randall's first pass was low and incomplete. He dropped back to pass again, scrambled around and threw for Ernest Wilford in the left corner of the end zone. King was there, and the Mountaineers victory was secured.

Tech coach Frank Beamer didn't blame Randall for the play, saying he told the sophomore, "If you feel like you've got a play, take it. ... I made sure he was going to throw it in the end zone. If it wasn't there, I wanted him to throw it away and let's kick the field goal and go into OT.

"I don't fault him a bit. We lost this together," Beamer said.

Earlier, Suggs made history because of his ability to get into the end zone, running 28 yards down the left sideline for the first touchdown. It gave him at least one TD in 24 straight games, breaking an NCAA Division I-A record he shared with Bill Burnett of Arkansas, who did it in 1968-70.

Suggs also had a 27-yard scoring run called back by a holding penalty.

"That's a bad time to be holding," Beamer said. "It just seems like a lot of stuff, and we can't get over the hump. We're just missing a little bit right now."