Pitt women look to take down No. 1 Connecticut

It’s not often in sports that a team riding a seven-game winning streak has the opportunity to… It’s not often in sports that a team riding a seven-game winning streak has the opportunity to pull off the biggest upset of the season. On Sunday, the Pitt women’s basketball team gets that chance.

The Panthers venture northeast Sunday to take on the vaunted No. 1 Connecticut Huskies, who have yet to lose this year, at 3:30 p.m.

‘Anytime you have the opportunity to play No. 1 in the nation, it’s great,’ said Pitt coach Agnus Berenato. ‘Everybody wants to play against the best and beat the best. It gives you a gauge of where we are.’

Since losing twice during the beginning of Big East play, No. 19 Pitt (18-4, 8-2 Big East) has taken seven straight games to merge into a three-way tie for second place in the conference standings with Louisville and Villanova.

But the Panthers’ stretch pales in comparison to the outright onslaught Connecticut has thumped on its opponents all season. The Huskies have yet to experience defeat, winning every one of their 24 games.

Connecticut’s absolute dominance exudes from every game. The team’s smallest margin of victory came in its season opener against Georgia Tech, an 82-71 victory. In Big East play, a 15-point win over DePaul is the Huskies’ smallest.

The Huskies seem to bring their best against top competitors. In a showdown against then-No. 2 North Carolina on Jan. 19, Connecticut whipped the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill 88-58. Louisville, which held the title of the Big East’s second-best squad all season, lost to the Huskies by 28 a week later.

Connecticut possesses two of the best players in the nation, who could pose severe threats to the Panthers’ defense.

Sophomore forward Maya Moore is a near shoo-in All-American who averages almost 20 points and about nine rebounds per game. Senior point guard Renee Montgomery tallies around 16 points a game, while adding better than five assists per game.

At 6-foot-4, junior center Tina Charles gives the Huskies three elite scorers. Charles finishes with better than 15 points per contest. Pitt will also have to deal with the hostile Connecticut crowd.

‘When you play on their campus, they’re on top of you,’ said Berenato of the crowd. ‘And it’s sold out. It’ll be 11,000 strong, a great environment.’

Playing on the road or not, the blazing Panthers could provide the toughest test for the Huskies until the Big East tournament. Pitt’s All-American candidate Shavonte Zellous has produced remarkably consistent numbers during Pitt’s seven-game streak, averaging 23.6 points in that span, matching her overall numbers for the season.

Pitt scared Connecticut in the teams’ meeting at the Petersen Events Center last year. The Panthers led more than 12 minutes into the game, but the Huskies zipped past the young team for the remaining 28 and won 90-64.