Women’s hoops take on Blue Devils in NYC

The Pitt women’s basketball team will face one of its biggest challenges of the season… The Pitt women’s basketball team will face one of its biggest challenges of the season Saturday when it travels to Madison Square Garden to face the 15th-ranked Duke Blue Devils at this year’s Maggie Dixon Classic.

At this particular event, held in honor of the late sister of Pitt men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon, the Panthers will be coming off a three-game win streak, including the 65-55 win over Ohio on Wednesday night and winning the Marshall Tournament last weekend. The Panthers are now 6-2 on the season and are hoping to add another win to that record.

Duke, however, is coming off a three-game losing streak on the road – their only three losses of the season. During the skid, Duke has allowed its opponents an average of 76 points per game, and has only hit 48.6 percent of shots made from the field.

Wanisha Smith, a leading senior for Duke, is heading into the contest just after passing the 1,000 career points mark. She should be a decent match for Pitt standout Shavonte Zellous who also reached 1,000 points last weekend.

Duke brings a team with a lot of depth. In their eight games this season, the Blue Devils have had five different players leading the team in scoring, one being junior Abby Waner, who is seventh on Duke’s all-time list for career 3-point shots made with 129. She made six of them in a loss at Penn State on Sunday.

Waner is also only 164 points away from 1,000. She’ll be starting next to her sister, Emily Waner, who is a senior, along with their regular lineup of Bridgette Mitchell, Careem Gay and Chante Black, a redshirt junior who sat out last year because of a knee injury.

Despite last year’s injury Black has been having a great start to a new season, averaging 14.7 points and 7.1 rebounds per game in the last seven games. From the free-throw line this season, she’s shooting 74.2 percent. Both Pitt and Duke suffered losses this season at the hands of an unranked Penn State team. The Panthers’ only other loss came at Maryland, who is currently ranked No. 6 in the country.