Women’s Basketball: Panthers hold on for second Big East win

Wearing pink uniforms and shoes as part of the Pink the Pete event, the Pitt women’s… Wearing pink uniforms and shoes as part of the Pink the Pete event, the Pitt women’s basketball team secured its first home victory of the new year.

The game served as a breast cancer research fundraiser, and the Panthers held on for the 72-69 win yesterday against Louisville, improving their record to 13-11 and 3-9 in the Big East.

The last time the Panthers won at home was a 57-47 win Dec. 31 against Mount St. Mary’s.

The game opened with some offensive struggles for both sides, but Taneisha Harrison recorded the first score of the game after roughly two and a half minutes of scoreless play.

Points seemed to flow a bit more freely after that, especially for Pitt’s Brittaney Thomas.

Thomas turned in a 22-point performance, which was not only a game-best, but also her career high. The junior’s previous high was 18 points.

Pitt coach Agnus Berenato praised Thomas’ willingness to take a leadership role on the offensive side of the ball.

“Thomas stepped up and showed no fear on the court,” Berenato said. “It really looked like she wanted the shot.”

Thomas said her teammates recognized her scoring presence, as well.

“Everyone was telling me to just take the shot,” Thomas said. “I could feel that I was in the flow of the game so I just turned it on.”

Despite Thomas’ stellar performance, the game remained close as the Panthers and Cardinals (11-14, 3-9) played at a tied score five times and exchanged leads six times.

The Panthers have had difficulty in closing out games, most recently in a three-point loss to Georgetown, but Berenato was determined to stop that trend.

“In practices after the Georgetown game, we worked on finishing,” Berenato said. “That one possession loss to Georgetown really hurt us.”

Yesterday, Pitt experienced the winning side of a close game, and Louisville suffered the defeat.

With just more than one minute remaining in the game, the Panthers held a 68-67 lead over the Cardinals, and clutch rebounding and free-throw shooting allowed the Panthers to close out the contest.

Chelsea Cole and Shayla Scott both hit two foul shots in the final minute of the game, and each of those opportunities came from rebounding efforts.

Balanced scoring proved to be important for both the Panthers and the Cardinals, as Thomas, Harrison and Jania Sims finished with double-digit point totals and four of Louisville’s five starters contributed more than 10 points.

Forward Monique Reid led the Cardinals with 20 points, whereas center Keshia Hines chipped in 17 points.

Becky Burke and Shelby Harper rounded out the Cardinal scoring with 15 and 11 points, respectively.

But the Panther bench, thanks mostly to Thomas, out-scored the Cardinal bench 26-2 in the game.

The production generated from Pitt’s bench was necessary, especially as Shawnice “Pepper” Wilson and Scott scored below their scoring averages as a result of reduced playing time because of foul trouble.

Thomas might have led the Panthers in scoring, but Berenato stressed the importance of other statistical categories in the victory.

“I was very happy to see a 13 in the assist column,” Berenato said. “We have been lacking in that area on the stat sheet recently.”

Pitt and Louisville, both struggling to find success in the Big East, also shared a tendency to turn the ball over many times in the course of the game.

In fact, the Cardinals and the Panthers occupied the bottom two spots in the Big East turnover margin per game with figures of minus-4.8 and minus-5.2, respectively.

The Panthers committed 19 turnovers in the contest, one more than their average of 18. The Cardinals finished with one less than their average at 21 turnovers.

Berenato attributes some of those turnovers to an early rush of excitement in the Panthers.

“In the first half, we really needed to settle down and take care of the basketball,” she said. “I don’t know if it was the pink shoes, but everyone was excited to play this game.”

As Pitt prepares for its next conference game at Villanova Wednesday night, the win against Louisville will serve as motivation for further success in the Big East.

“This was a great win for us,” Berenato said. “In the big picture of things, we were dying for a victory.”