Women’s Basketball: Pitt looks to end losing streak

The Pitt women’s basketball team has lost three straight games since getting out to a solid… The Pitt women’s basketball team has lost three straight games since getting out to a solid start this season..

Before suffering a blowout loss to Georgetown at home on Wednesday, Pitt fell on the road to both High Point and Duke. Now the Panthers face the Valparaiso Crusaders at the Petersen Events Center on Saturday afternoon. Pitt began the year 4-2.

Pitt head coach Agnus Berenato said she believes the difficult schedule is helping her team — the youngest in Division I women’s basketball — grow up quickly.

“It doesn’t get any easier,” Berenato said in a press conference after the 82-52 loss to Georgetown. “We have Valparaiso, and then we go and play Indiana and Michigan State, and then you all know what the Big East is like.”

Valparaiso, which will enter Saturday’s matchup with a 2-6 record, is far from the best team the Panthers will play this season.Still, the Crusaders travel to Pittsburgh after winning two of their last three games. Valparaiso is also coming off a 64-43 home victory over Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne on Tuesday night.

“We stayed out of foul trouble, and that was a key,” Valparaiso head coach Keith Freeman said in a news release on Valparaiso’s website. “I think their pressure helped us on offense because we were able to move the ball well and had a good balance inside and outside.”

Sophomore forward Tabitha Gerardot averages 11.3 points per game and leads Valparaiso’s scoring attack. Three other Crusaders average at least eight points: Ashley Varner (9.6 points per game), Shaquira Scott (9.1 points) and Gina Lange (8.8 points).

Varner, a senior forward, nearly averages a double-double, pulling down a team-high 9.4 rebounds per game.

Four Crusaders scored in double figures and two players finished with double-doubles as Valparaiso defeated IPFW with a balanced scoring attack. Varner finished with a game-high 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Gerardot put up 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Valparaiso outrebounded IPFW 38-34 and should provide a challenge for Pitt inside.

To get their record back to .500, the Panthers need to avoid the scoring droughts that plagued them in their defeat on Wednesday. Pitt missed 14 shots in nearly 11 minutes against the Hoyas.

“Just keeping attacking,” Pitt center Leeza Burdgess said after the game about Pitt’s struggle to score. “This is our home, and our shots will fall. We will get the baskets we need.”

Several Pitt players have proven they have the ability to score.

Seven Panthers are averaging at least five points per game, including freshman Brianna Kiesel and sophomore Marquel Davis, who are averaging 13.3 and 10.6 points, respectively.

Due to the Panthers’ youth, Berenato admits that the attitude and spirit of her team this season might be more important than wins and losses.

“As long as they learn and believe it, then I’m okay with it,” Berenato said. “I believe in our system and what we’re doing. It’s just that they’re young, and they’re going to get pounded. But they can’t lose the faith.”