Davis leads Panthers

Marquel Davis fights through a screen against Seton Hill, reaching toward the ball handler as… Marquel Davis fights through a screen against Seton Hill, reaching toward the ball handler as she falls to the ground. A whistle. Offensive foul. Pitt ball. 

Stoic up until this moment in the play, Davis slaps the floor in elation and runs back on defense.

A sophomore guard, Davis has emerged as one of the stars on the Pitt women’s basketball team this season.

“I feel like coming into college, I had lot of jitters or nervousness, so I didn’t really know what I could do, what I should do,” Davis said.

Now in her second season, Davis is playing a key role for the Panthers, thanks, in part, to her tireless work ethic, Pitt head coach Agnus Berenato said.“She earned [her success] from the summer and the spring, and we saw improvement,” Berenato said. “She spent the time over the summer playing pickup and trying to get better.”

Tonight, Davis will face one of her biggest challenges yet: April Sykes.

The senior guard from Rutgers is coming off a week during which she was selected to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll after racking up 14 points, seven rebounds and four steals against Syracuse.

Davis can help Pitt rise to the challenge with her play and her voice. Though the guard started out quiet on the court and on the bench, Berenato said, that has started to change.

“This year she’s learned a little bit, so she’s come out of herself as a teammate on the court,” Berenato said.

Berenato wants Davis to continue to become more vocal.

“When you’re a basketball player, you can’t be quiet,” she said.

Davis has found it difficult to change her habits.

“I’m a quiet basketball player,” Davis said. “I’ve always been that way.”

Redshirt sophomore Ashlee Anderson said Marquel’s on-court personality differs greatly from how she acts off it.

“Marquel is an individual that you have to get to know to bring out that personality that she has,” Anderson said. “She’s very outgoing when you get to know her. So if we can convey that more on the court, then you’ll see a heck of a player.”

This year, Davis has found herself in not only a starting role, but also a leadership role on a team that is the youngest in Division I women’s basketball. 

“She is that leader on the court that you can look to when things are going bad,” Leeza Burdgess, a redshirt sophomore, said. “Marquel is definitely that type of person who calms everybody down, and, you know, makes a play when a play is needed.”

Burdgess has heard the difference.

 “[This year], if she’s on the bench, you can definitely hear her voice,” Burdgess said. “It definitely was different last year where you kind of had to be like, ‘Come on ’Quel, talk.’ But now like she’s telling other people like, ‘You gotta talk,’ and telling everybody where she’s supposed to be.”

“Now I feel like my confidence is way better going into games,” Davis explained. 

Davis struggled offensively following a concussion she sustained in a Nov. 29 game against Mount St. Mary’s, averaging only 3.6 points in her first three games post-injury. The team struggled as well, going 0-3.

Since that losing streak, Davis has returned to her impressive form, continuing to display facets of her game that didn’t exist last season.

“She had five rebounds in one game [against Loyola (Md.)],” Berenato said. “That’s something that before wouldn’t have happened.”

Before the concussion, Davis averaged 20.7 points per game, including a career-high 26 points against Central Michigan. Her high last season was eight points.

Her average has since decreased to 11.1 points per game, but Berenato attributes the dip in scoring — which the whole team has experienced — to the higher caliber opposition that the team has faced of late.

Following the guard’s concussion, Berenato didn’t want to put pressure on Davis to perform.

“I think it’s still going take her a second to get back in the swing of things,” Berenato said after Davis’ 2-point performance against Duke.

That second came and went.

Two games later against Valparaiso, Davis led all scorers with 17 points, shooting 58.3 percent from the field — also a game high.

“This is Marquel’s welcome back game,” Berenato said. “We now have Marquel back like Marquel.”

 Davis took her return to form in stride.

 “I’ve been working hard to come back, so I kind of needed to relax and let the game come to me,” Davis said. “[I was] a little more confident coming into this than what I have been in the recent games coming off of my concussion. I was really prepared, and like I said, I’ve been working a little extra to come back.”

Davis credits her older brother Marcus with instilling in her a competitive drive at a young age.

“He was very competitive with me,” she said. “We would always compete in basketball … We’d come home, we’d play one-on-one and my dad would ref.”

“If he’d beat me, I’d get mad,” Davis added. “He was a good help to my drive of being better, because I always worked so hard to beat him and demolish him when it came to basketball.”

Last year as a freshman, Davis appeared in 28 games, starting three. She averaged 2.3 points, 1.5 rebounds and 14.3 minutes per game.

With the team still winless in conference play, Davis’ improvements will need to continue if the Panthers hope to find that elusive victory.