Once again, Pitt sophomore forward Brenna Wise lit up the scoreboard for the Panthers, but it wasn’t enough to get the win.
The Pitt women’s basketball team (13-15 overall, 4-11 ACC) lost its final road game — and its last chance at a winning season — in a 79-48 defeat to the No. 8 Florida State Seminoles (25-4 overall, 13-2 ACC) Thursday night in Tallahassee, Florida. Wise led all scorers with 23 points, but her Panthers teammates combined to put up just 25 points in support.
Coming off of a career-high 31 points in Pitt’s last game, Wise started the game with a jumper from just inside the arc. Her teammate, junior point guard Aysia Bugg, followed Wise with a jumper of her own to give the Panthers a 4-0 lead less than two minutes into the game.
The Seminoles quickly erased Pitt’s lead with a 10-0 run in less than two minutes. Wise put up a long-range shot for three to put a stop to Florida State’s run.
Seminoles guard Imani Wright nailed her second triple of the quarter to distance her team from the Panthers. Wise made another shot from the paint, but Wright followed with a breakaway layup to make the game 17-9, and Florida State ended the first quarter with a 19-11 lead.
The Seminoles confused the Panthers’ defense with pinpoint passing, consistently finding open looks and extending their lead to 28-12 after a layup, jumper, 3-pointer and a foul shot.
Wise and Pitt point guard Jasmine Whitney continued putting up shots, but none found the mark. Florida State forward Maria Conde added a jumper to make it 30-12 with just over four minutes left in the half, then a bucket from forward Ivey Slaughter made it a 20-point game.
Pitt graduate transfer center Brandi Harvey-Carr drew a foul beneath the basket and made one of her foul shots, ending the Panthers’ five-minute dry spell. She and Wise each put up a jumper each for Pitt, but a buzzer-beating 3-point shot from Seminoles senior guard Brittany Brown closed out the first half with a 38-17 Florida State advantage.
The Seminoles outscored the Panthers 19-6 in the second quarter. Wise led Pitt with nine points and three rebounds at the half, while Wright led Florida State with 12 points.
Harvey-Carr started the third quarter with the first score, smoothly getting to the basket for a layup. Slaughter put up four points before Bugg scored with a layup just before the shot clock expired to make the game 44-21.
Seminoles center Chatrice White responded with a layup seven seconds later, then neither team scored for the next three minutes. Florida State ended the scoring drought with two free throws, but Pitt first-year guard Alayna Gribble drained a 3-pointer to make it 48-24.
Another successful trip to the line for the Seminoles resulted in two more points before Wise sank her first basket of the half, putting her in double digits with 11 points. Gribble followed up with another three, then two foul shots from Wise made it 54-31 at the end of the third.
Entering the final quarter with a virtually insurmountable 23-point deficit, the Panthers went almost four minutes without a point as Florida State stretched its lead to 30 with 6:07 remaining.
Wise gave the Panthers their first basket of the quarter, then sophomore forward Kauai Bradley scored her first points of the game with two clean free throws. But Pitt still trailed 61-35 midway through the fourth.
Bugg followed up a triple from Brown with one of her own, then Wise trailed a layup by Seminoles guard Nicole Ekhomu with one of her own. Florida State guard Leticia Romero then drained a three to make the game 69-40 with less than four minutes left, and the Seminoles closed out the dominant 79-48 win with ease.
The Panthers will return to the Petersen Events Center for their final regular season game Friday, Feb. 26, when they face off against the Syracuse Orange at 2 p.m.