Women’s Basketball: Panthers overcome two scoring runs to defeat Loyola

The Pitt women’s basketball team overcame two scoring runs by the Loyola Greyhounds to pick up… The Pitt women’s basketball team overcame two scoring runs by the Loyola Greyhounds to pick up its second win of the season on Friday afternoon.

Loyola started the game on a 7-0 run and then put together an 8-0 run to start the second half, but the Panthers — the youngest team in Division I — came away with a 65-59 victory.

“I think it’s tremendous,” head coach Agnus Berenato said of her team overcoming adversity. “It should show them a lot. I’m proud of this team because they stayed together, and I think this will be great learning experience.”

Over 5,000 local children made the trip to the Petersen Events Center for Pitt’s School Day event. Pitt’s Marquel Davis and Kyra Dunn treated the students to stand-out performances.

Davis led the Panthers with a career-high 17 points to go along with a career-high five rebounds. She was a force in the second half, scoring all but two of her points after halftime.

Sophomore forward Dunn put up her first career double-double with a career-high 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. She added six blocks, and the Greyhounds couldn’t figure out how to avoid Dunn in the paint.

“I take pride in my defense, especially knowing that once I get a rebound or a blocked shot, that’s what gets my game going,” Dunn said. “I don’t need to score in order to get going.”

Berenato called a timeout only 2:09 into the game in order to stop Loyola’s run and calm her inexperienced team. The players responded.

The Panthers took an 18-16 lead when co-captain Abby Dowd secured an offensive rebound and knocked down a three from the right baseline.

Fellow co-captain Ashlee Anderson helped extend the lead when she saved the ball underneath and fed Leeza Burdgess for an easy lay-up.

Dowd scored 11 points, but the co-captain’s greatest contributions won’t show up on the stat sheet. In the midst of both runs by the Greyhounds, she hit shots that killed their momentum.

The clutch plays by the co-captains were just the beginning of a 19-4 run over the last 12:45 of the first half.

The Greyhounds managed to make just five of 23 shots in the first half, after hitting their first three attempts.

Loyola started the second half on an 8-0 run that lasted 3:38. Anderson stopped the run by making a lay-up while absorbing a foul. She hit the free throw to put the Panthers up 35-28.

Loyola wouldn’t get closer than three points the rest of the game.

The Greyhounds cut the lead to 38-34 with 9:54 left, but then Pitt sophomore guard Davis took over.

She went on a personal 9-1 run to put Pitt up 47-35 and was able to repeatedly drive the lane in the second half.

She also thwarted the Loyola press, which was giving freshman guard Brianna Kiesel trouble after the break. She turned the ball over seven times in the second half.

Davis’ personal run began Pitt’s 15-1 run that put the game out of reach for good. The Panthers extended their lead to 18 with 6:17 remaining.

“Going into the second half, my teammates just said calming things to me,” Davis said. “I just had to calm down, and when you calm down, the game just kind of comes to you.”

The Greyhounds cut the lead to three with 29 seconds left, but the Panthers prevailed.

The Panthers forced 24 turnovers and scored 31 points off turnovers — the most points off turnovers for Pitt since Dec. 16, 2008, against Wagner when the Panthers scored 36 points.

“Our defense definitely created our offense today, and I think that really showed in our points on offense off of turnovers,” Berenato said.