Women’s basketball: Pitt and Syracuse look to rebound from losses when they meet Tuesday night

Despite a 98-56 loss to No. 1-ranked Connecticut on Saturday, the Pitt women’s basketball team… Despite a 98-56 loss to No. 1-ranked Connecticut on Saturday, the Pitt women’s basketball team did not leave the Petersen Events Center with heads hanging low.

“Everyone was aggressive, trying to attack the basket and look for their shot,” junior guard Jania Sims said. “We came out, and we played hard and we need to go into the Syracuse game with the same intensity.”

Even after facing the best team in the nation, the road for the Panthers will not get any easier.

The Syracuse Orange (16-5, 3-5 Big East) is a formidable conference opponent on any occasion but especially in light of its recent loss to No. 3 Notre Dame on Saturday.

Down 14 points at halftime, Syracuse staged a remarkable second-half comeback and gained the lead with a minute left to play.

But a 3-point play by Notre Dame sealed its 74-73 victory, and Syracuse will look to get back that Big East victory.

The Panthers (12-8, 1-6 Big East) have endured struggles throughout the season, as they still seek their first conference victory at home.

Head coach Agnus Berenato believes the focus of her team needs to be on the next game — the match-up against the Orange — rather than on the other remaining eight contests.

Still, Berenato also noted that many Big East teams play a similar style of basketball, allowing the Panthers to simultaneously prepare for other conference opponents.

“We need to work on the fundamentals of basketball,” she said. “A lot of these Big East teams have tendencies in their game that we can work on predicting in practice.”

One tendency of the Syracuse team is to get the ball in the hands of Nicole Michael, a senior forward who leads the Orange in points and rebounds per game.

Michael has 1,587 career points and is just 18 points shy of setting the record for most points at Syracuse.

In order to overcome such a dominant force, the Panthers must improve their rebounding, a statistical category dominated by the Huskies in Saturday’s game.

Pitt forward Chelsea Cole leads the Big East in rebounds per game with 11 but she only secured two in the loss to Connecticut.

From an offensive perspective, the Panthers continue to rely on the efforts of Sims and Taneisha Harrison.

Balanced scoring has been an important but difficult goal for the Panthers since the beginning of the season. Sims, however, feels that her teammates are ready to step up to the challenge.

“The coaches always tell us that everyone can score,” Sims said. “People are starting to step out of their comfort zones and look for the open shot.”

Shayla Scott could be one of those individuals. With a team-high 18 points against Connecticut, Scott reached a double-digit scoring average for the season.

This week will certainly test the Panthers’ resiliency and their ability to maintain Berenato’s “one game at a time” mentality, as Notre Dame awaits a Saturday contest against Pitt.

Berenato knows her players are resilient.

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” Berenato such. “And we are a bunch of tough people.”

The Panthers hope to show their toughness against the Syracuse Orange tomorrow night at the Petersen Events Center at 7 p.m.