Women’s Basketball: Panthers look to rebound against St. Francis

The Pitt women’s basketball team will look to pick up its first win of the season against the… The Pitt women’s basketball team will look to pick up its first win of the season against the Saint Francis Red Flash Tuesday after falling in its season opener to Hampton.

Despite being in the smaller Northeast Conference, the Red Flash will bring a talented team to the Petersen Events Center. Saint Francis went 22-12 last season, when it logged a victory over the Panthers. The Red Flash have won the Northeast Conference for the past two seasons and were the favorites to do so again in the conference’s head coaches’ poll.

The Red Flash are coming off a 74-70 defeat at the hands of Duquesne but showed some promise late in the game after starting off slow. Offensively, the team is led by sophomore forward Alli Williams and junior guard Rhonda Watts. Against Duquesne, the two combined for 39 points. Also scoring in double digits for the Flash were Pennsbury graduate Sarah Thorn, with 12 points, and freshman guard Alexa Hayward, with 15.

Pitt head coach Agnus Berenato knows that Saint Francis is a quality opponent for her young team, and she cannot let her players dwell on the disappointment of losing their first game.

“I just think that today they got a dose of reality of what it is really like,” Berenato said after the Hampton loss. “We’ll be back at it in the morning for practice and then practice again on Monday, and then we face another really good NCAA tournament veteran team, Saint Francis.”

The Panthers boast a squad of six freshmen and six sophomores, making them the youngest Women’s Division I basketball team in the country. Berenato knows that the youth in her program will lead to some struggles, but she is quick to say that she believes in her young team.

“I think that today our youth really showed. But that is not an excuse, because it is what it is and this is what we have,” Berenato said. “We brought these student athletes there, and we really believe in them.”

One of the growing pains that the Panthers will experience this season is that the freshmen are being asked to play for large amounts of time. Usually they can be eased into the program by getting fewer minutes in a game.

“Normally, young players would experience coming in as a substitute and playing a few minutes and even going some games not playing at all, but right now all of our players have to play 20 to 30 minutes since they are all new,” Berenato said. “As far as effort, though, we’ve been working really hard and conducting really hard and great practices, and we have worked hard against ourselves.”

In the painful loss to Hampton, Pitt only mustered 37 points. The Panthers will need more offensive production to pick up the win Tuesday night. Freshman guard Brianna Kiesel knows the shots were there, but the team just failed to get them to go through.

“We rushed in offense and had good looks, but we just had a little bit of trouble knocking down shots,” Kiesel said. “Like Coach B said, we just have to go back to the drawing board.”

Sophomore guard Asia Logan echoed the sentiment, saying the young team just needs to calm down and play basketball the way they have been taught.

“We just really need to relax and run our plays,” Logan said. “The points are there, but we were just rushing.”

Berenato is looking to see her team continue to gain experience. Part of that experience comes from playing against NCAA Tournament-caliber teams, especially because the Big East schedule will deal the Panthers the same level of competition during the bulk of their schedule.

“We like this team, and we are excited about this team, we just have to keep progressing,” Berenato said. “We have a great schedule and are going to be playing some NCAA Tournament teams right in the beginning, because that is who we are going to be playing come January and February. So we need to go at it now and not sugarcoat it.”

The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Panthers. Pitt has three games in six days — a stretch that could prove difficult for the untested players, who haven’t yet become accustomed to playing together. Berenato knows her team was dealt a difficult schedule, but she plans to approach it as a learning experience for the squad.

“We need competition. They need to get used to the lights. I would much rather have back-to-back games,” Berenato said. “With a veteran team, you would be able to do film and scout, but it’s not about that right now. We have to do what is best for us, and right now it is about the speed and tempo of the game that we have to work on.”