Women’s Basketball: Panthers lose Big East opener

The Pitt women’s basketball team fell to the DePaul Blue Demons in its Big East-opener 67-51… The Pitt women’s basketball team fell to the DePaul Blue Demons in its Big East-opener 67-51 last night at the Petersen Events Center.

Pitt (4-4, 0-1 Big East) came into the game with a chance to win back-to-back games for the first time this season. But the swarming DePaul defense held Pitt to a season-low 51 points and 25 percent from the field.

“We’d had beautiful moves to the basket and the ball would go around and drop out,” head coach Agnus Berenato said in a news conference. “When the lid’s on the basket, you have to take the lid off the basket.”

Things started off well for Pitt. Led by Chelsea Cole, the Panthers immediately jumped to a 7-0 lead, but DePaul took control from that point on.

“We weren’t ready to play,” DePaul head coach Doug Bruno said, “but we knew 7-0 is not insurmountable and the players responded.”

The Blue Demons, who are ranked No. 24 in the AP poll, came back with a 21-4 run that gave them a 10-point lead halfway through the first half — a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Despite its continuous offensive struggles, Pitt’s defense stayed in the game. The Panthers held the Blue Demons to their second lowest offensive output of the season.

“Our defense was really pretty good to keep them to 67 when they’ve been averaging 84 points,” Berenato said.

The Panthers cut the deficit to six early in the second half, but DePaul’s senior leader Sam Quigley quickly nailed three 3-pointers to end any threat of a Panther comeback. Earlier, Quigley recorded her 1,000th career point with her first bucket of the night.

“I don’t think [Quigley] could care less about [her 1,000th point]. She’s just a really special captain for us at DePaul. She’s a special player for us at DePaul. She’s a great young woman,” Bruno said.

“She’s a good point guard,” Pitt guard Jania Sims said. “She pushes the ball and controls the team. She’s a good 3-pointer shooter and a great player.” Sims led the Panthers with 15 points.

The Big East’s physical style of basketball was something both sides had to deal with, as there were several injuries throughout the game. Pitt’s Taneisha Harrison and DePaul’s Keisha Hampton and Deirdre Naughton all spent significant time on the floor following collisions.

“We both had people get hurt. That’s Big East basketball. They were going at us and we were going at them, but it was all in the spirit of competition,” Berenato said.

Pitt will not play another Big East game for more than a month. It will resumes its nonconference schedule with a trip to Valparaiso on Saturday.

“We just have to go back to the drawing board. We’ll take this as a learning experience and I can’t wait for practice,” Berenato said.