Women crush ‘Cuse, win sixth straight

The Syracuse Orange accomplished what many teams wish to do but can’t -contain Pitt center… The Syracuse Orange accomplished what many teams wish to do but can’t -contain Pitt center Marcedes Walker.

The problem was, they had trouble guarding everyone else.

Shavonte Zellous scored 26 points on 9 of 16 shooting and grabbed six rebounds, and senior Mallorie Winn had 19 points to guide Pitt to an 85-75 victory at the Petersen Events Center last night.

Winn connected on 4 of 9 3-point attempts and added six assists in her game-high 38 minutes.

“I thought Mallorie Winn stepped in and did a beautiful job,” Pitt coach Agnus Berenato said. “She had a great floor game tonight.”

Walker finished with only five points and made her only field goal with 6:50 left in the game. She was constantly double-teamed and early foul trouble limited Walker to only 23 minutes.

Physicality was the mantra of the evening. The two teams combined for a whopping 47 fouls with a good portion of those coming in the final four minutes.

The foul trouble did include one positive for the Panthers. Three freshmen got substantial playing time and excelled on the court. Taneisha Harrison scored 11 points, Chelsea Cole added six points with seven rebounds and Shayla Scott threw in six points and four blocks.

Zellous impressed with 22 of her points coming in the second half. Her performance mirrored her standout effort of 31 points on Sunday against DePaul that aided in earning her Big East Player of the Week honors.

But it was Winn’s contribution that captured the limelight.

She missed all of last season because of an injury. This season, her sixth because of last year’s medical redshirt, her play has improved steadily all season up to last night, when she started for Jania Sims.

“Since I’ve come back, my whole focus has been to improve,” Winn said. “I think tonight was a great opportunity for myself.”

Berenato believed the victory was a vital one for her squad.

“I was really excited to see how our younger kids stepped up,” Berenato said. “The Big East is the best conference in the country right now. We have to protect our home court.”

The win propelled Pitt to a 12-3 record and 2-0 in conference play. Syracuse dropped to 13-2 and 1-1.

Chandrea Jones led all Orange scorers with 19 points while Nicole Michael and Fantasia Goodwin added 16 each.

The second half was a slugfest even as the Panthers began to pull away from Syracuse. Referees called a tight half with Pitt the benefiting recipient early.

Zellous caught fire at the onset of the half, scoring Pitt’s first seven points.

After the Orange cut the deficit to 52-46, Pitt went on a dominating 19-7 run, culminating in another Zellous jumper to give the Panthers their largest advantage of the night at 71-53.

The only discrepancy was a rash of fouls leaving three Panthers with four fouls each with only four minutes to play. Walker only played sporadically in the critical period.

This led to a furious Syracuse run in the final minutes of the battle. With Pitt’s defense not as aggressive because of the foul trouble, the Orange scored on several lay-ups and got as close as eight points with 47 seconds to go at 78-70 but could get no closer.

Tempers flared early even before the game got physical. Syracuse coach Quentin Hillsman was issued a technical foul only 28 seconds into the first half. Pitt failed to capitalize and score the first points of the game when Zellous missed two free throws.

The Panthers jumped out to a 13-7 lead thanks to a 9-0 run littered with Syracuse missed shots and Pitt fast breaks.

A potential problem arose when Walker committed her second foul with 12:33 to play in the first half. She was kept on the bench for the remainder of the half.

Pitt didn’t seem bothered by the absence of its star center at first. Scott blocked a shot and got a hand on another to stop a Syracuse possession, then made a jumper at the other end to make it 17-12. A Harrison layup gave Pitt its biggest lead at that point at 19-12.

Suddenly the Orange’s shots finally started to swish. After beginning the game making only 3 of 17 attempts, Syracuse surged back by making 6 of 9, tying the score at 19.

A rash of Orange turnovers gave Pitt a seven-point lead at 34-27, sparked by four consecutive points by Harrison.