Women’s Basketball: Panthers show improvement in loss

The Pitt women’s basketball team stayed close to Cincinnati until the final buzzer on Saturday… The Pitt women’s basketball team stayed close to Cincinnati until the final buzzer on Saturday but couldn’t come up with its first Big East win.

The Panthers fell to the Bearcats 62-57 for their 10th straight loss, but, in a change from recent games, Pitt managed to compete for 40 minutes.

“We played for a full 40 minutes and didn’t have any lapses today,” head coach Agnus Berenato said. “We started [the] game strong, and [the] game was back-and-forth. There were 11 lead changes, and that’s the kind of game in February you have to have.”

Pitt (8-16, 0-11 Big East) never let Cincinnati (13-12, 4-8 Big East) extend its lead to double digits, and the largest Bearcat lead was by seven points in the second half.

Pitt went into the half down three points, 28-25, but the Panthers kept the Bearcats from running away out of the break. The Cincinnati lead grew to seven at the beginning of the second half before Pitt began to chip away at it.

Pitt wrestled the lead from the Bearcats to grab a 49-48 advantage with less than six minutes to go in the game but surrendered it almost immediately on back-to-back buckets from Cincinnati senior guard Bjonee Reaves.

Reaves’ baskets gave the momentum back to Cincinnati. The Panthers cut the lead down to four with 2:30 to go on a Marquel Davis jumper, but that’s as close as Pitt would get.

Both Ashlee Anderson and Davis fouled out as Pitt attempted to orchestrate a comeback, leaving the team without two of its biggest offensive threats.

Pitt turned the ball over six times in the remaining minutes but also shot 50 percent from the field.

The Bearcats shot 52.4 percent in the second half.

Increased offensive production helped Pitt keep the game competitive. Four Pitt players reached double figures,

The two teams traded the lead eight times during the first half, and the largest lead in the period was a five-point Cincinnati advantage.

Redshirt sophomore Leeza Burdgess — Pitt’s only active center following the season-ending injury to Cora McManus a month ago — dominated down low.

Burdgess cleaned the glass, grabbing a career-high 16 rebounds. She also scored 10 points, collecting her third double-double this season.

With a front line depleted by injuries, Pitt’s guards needed to carry the team. Anderson, Davis and freshman Brianna Kiesel finished in double figures with 15 points, 13 points and 13 points, respectively.

Berenato said she has noticed a change in the play of the guards over the past week.

“Our guards — we challenged them in practice. They were more fluid this week. They had to make shots over the [male practice players] in practice,” Berenato said in a release on Pitt’s website. “I thought today they didn’t hesitate on their shots, and it showed in a much better effort.”

Unfortunately for the Panthers, Cincinnati’s guards came to play as well.

Reaves led all scorers with 19 points, while fellow senior Chanel Chisholm and redshirt sophomore Dayeesha Hollins provided support with 14 and 15 points, respectively.

Cincinnati head coach Jamelle Elliott said she didn’t overlook Pitt despite its poor conference record. This time last year, the Bearcats were in the midst of an equally rough stretch.

“Last year … we’d lost [13] games in a row, and I tried to motivate my players every game to play hard,” Elliott said. “Agnus did the same thing [today]. I knew that they were going to play hard all 40 minutes, and they did.”

Pitt has five regular-season games left to try and pick up a Big East win, starting with a home game against Louisville on Tuesday.