Stopped dead: Pitt sent home

With 8:39 left in Pitt’s Sweet 16 matchup Saturday, the Panthers were down one point to… With 8:39 left in Pitt’s Sweet 16 matchup Saturday, the Panthers were down one point to Stanford – possibly the hottest team in the country.

But then, the Cardinal team that won 20 straight games showed up, and the Panthers’ magical season came to a close.

No. 6 seed Pitt (24-11) tussled and matched the No. 2 seed Stanford for three quarters of the game, but a definitive 15-2 run sent the Panthers packing with a loss, 72-53.

The final score didn’t show how close the battle actually was. Stanford (33-3) scored 25 of the game’s final 32 points.

Stanford will face the No. 1 seed in the Spokane region, Maryland, Monday in the regional final.

Maryland defeated No. 4 Vanderbilt, 80-66, earlier in the day.

Junior guard Shavonte Zellous was again the offensive star for Pitt, scoring 22 points on 8-for-16 shooting. She added five rebounds and two blocked shots.

One of those blocks came on All-American Candice Wiggins’ jumper with 7:46 left in the contest, and it seemed to be a momentum boost.

Instead, Wiggins and the Cardinal used Zellous’ subsequent taunts as motivation, and Stanford’s best player saved her best for the end to put the Panthers away.

Pitt held Wiggins to 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting, a far cry from her 44-point effort in Monday’s win over UTEP.

But eight of those points came in the second half, and the Panthers had no answer for Stanford’s frontcourt duo of Jayne Appel and Kayla Pedersen.

Appel scored 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, while Pedersen added 12 and 16.

The Cardinal dominated underneath the basket all game, outrebounding the Panthers, 54-30.

“They really took it to us on the inside,” Pitt coach Agnus Berenato told the Associated Press.

“The rebounding was a huge factor in the game.”

The rebounding statistics showed that, as did Marcedes Walker’s statistics.

Pitt’s senior center and signature player, who was along for the program’s ride from Big East pushover to Sweet 16 darling, struggled to make an impact in her final collegiate contest.

Walker picked up her fourth foul with 11:42 remaining and was off the court for Stanford’s deciding run.

Walker finished the game with only two points and four rebounds. She took only three shots in 28 minutes.

Without Walker’s usual scoring touch, the offense struggled.

Mallorie Winn, also playing in her final game, had 13 points.

Winn and Zellous were the only Panthers in double-figures, and no other Pitt player finished with more than five points.

The team shot just 29.5 percent from the field.

Despite the offensive shortcomings, the Panthers hung tight with the Cardinal thanks to Zellous.

Fifteen of her 22 points came in the first half, which kept Pitt within one at halftime.

“Shavonte put the team on her back tonight,” Berenato told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Still, Pitt stalled at the onset of the second half, allowing Stanford to score the first five points to extend its lead to 34-28.

The Panthers missed their first five shots of the half and did not score again until Zellous made a free throw with 16:53 to go.

Stanford looked to be pulling away when Pedersen was fouled by Walker on a made layup with 11:42 left. Walker was taken out, and Pedersen hit the free throw to give the Cardinal a 45-37 lead. It was the largest lead up to that point.

Just as it has done all season, Pitt tried to fight back. The Panthers went on a 9-2 run, capped by Winn’s long 3-pointer to slash the deficit to one. The clock read 8:39.

But Stanford showed why it deserved a top seed in the tournament, pulling away with a strong contribution of a role player.

Rosalyn Gold-Onwude made a jumper and a 3-pointer in succession after Zellous’ ferocious block on Wiggins, and Stanford scored the next nine points to seal the deal.

Gold-Onwude scored 15 points, two short of her all-time high.

During the crucial stretch, Pitt went more than three minutes between field goals. With 5:27 left, Shayla Scott stopped the bleeding with a layup.

The Panthers didn’t make another shot the rest of the way, scoring their final five points on free throws.

The tenacious Stanford defense forced Pitt to miss 11 of its final 12 shots.

It was the first time in the history of Pitt women’s basketball that the Panthers advanced to the Sweet 16.