Women’s Basketball: Panthers still searching for first Big East win

During head coach Agnus Berenato’s nine years at Pitt, the women’s basketball team has won… During head coach Agnus Berenato’s nine years at Pitt, the women’s basketball team has won at least two Big East games each season.

With just two conference games remaining in the regular season, the Panthers (8-19, 0-14 Big East) hope to avoid becoming the first team to fail to reach that mark by picking up a win against Seton Hall (7-21, 0-14 Big East) at the Petersen Events Center on Saturday.

The Pirates haven’t won a conference contest either, and with both teams pursuing that elusive first victory, Pitt freshman point guard Brianna Kiesel said she expects a battle.

“Both teams are going to play hard,” she said. “Everyone’s just going to leave it on the court.”

With the Big East Tournament just a week away, a win would help build crucial momentum for the young Pitt team before its first-round match-up.

Seton Hall has the lowest scoring average in the league, scoring 54.1 points per game. That’s good news for Pitt: The Panthers have struggled defensively, allowing a conference-worst 70.1 points per game.

But despite Seton Hall’s low offensive output, the Pirates possess one of the top scorers in the league in redshirt senior Jasmine Crew. The guard averages 18.5 points — second-best in the Big East.

Pitt sophomore Asia Logan underwent surgery on her injured shoulder Thursday morning and will be out for six to eight months. After the surgery, Logan tweeted that the procedure went well.

Logan’s absence — while not a shock — keeps the Pitt bench thin in the frontcourt and backcourt.

Berenato said that she wants the Panthers to continue to develop and improve in the remaining games, but that doesn’t mean she’s content with the effort if her team is losing.

“Do I want to win?” Berenato said. “Yeah, I want to win.”

Following Pitt’s atrocious first half against Connecticut, during which the Huskies outscored the Panthers 48-10, Berenato said the coaching staff knew they had to send a message to the players.

“We let them know exactly how we felt at halftime, and they got it,” Berenato said. The Panthers performed better in the second half, getting outscored by a slimmer margin: 38-27.

Pitt hopes to carry that improvement to the game against the Pirates.

“To us, it’s the biggest game of the year,” Berenato said. “We need to just get over the hump. We have to get over the hump.”

Redshirt sophomore Ashlee Anderson said the Panthers have gotten better since the start of the season.

“I feel like we do have [the ability to win] in us,” Anderson said. “We’re a much better team than we were.”

But she admitted that losing has been mentally difficult for the team.

“It’s always tough losing,” Anderson said. “At this point, if we sulked every time we lost, then I don’t think people would have the same attitude that we come into practice with every day and come into games with: still trying to work hard and still trying to have a positive attitude on the outlook, especially going into the Big East tournament.”

Kiesel, already a leader for the Panthers, said she knows what she has to do to keep spirits high and for the team to succeed.

”I just have to lead by example,” Kiesel said. “That’ll bring everyone else to keep working hard. I have to stay strong, keep my head up and stay positive, focused.”

Kiesel said she doesn’t expect the rest of her seasons at Pitt to provide the same struggle.

“It won’t always be like this,” Kiesel said. “It’s not always going to be the season that we’re having this time. We all have growing pains. Every team has growing pains. This just happens to be ours.”

She added that her teammates still have confidence and a belief that they can win, even though they have failed to do so recently.

“We haven’t been on a winning streak, but I still think that we have that confidence and understanding that we can win and that we are a good team,” Kiesel said. “We’re growing and I think that we’re going to go out with a whole new mindset. Hopefully getting this win on Saturday will help boost our morale that much more. “