Women’s hoops takes Marshall tourney

The Pitt women’s basketball team returned home champions on Saturday.

It wasn’t exactly… The Pitt women’s basketball team returned home champions on Saturday.

It wasn’t exactly like winning the national championship, but the Panthers were happy nonetheless with their title in the Fifth Third Classic at Huntington, W. Va.

Pitt swept two games in the tournament held on Marshall’s campus on Friday and Saturday. It defeated Harvard 70-54 on Friday and held off the hosts of the tournament 70-66 to capture the title.

“We’re happy to come home with the championship, this was our goal,” coach Agnus Berenato said. “We’re really excited to be driving home with two wins.”

Senior center Marcedes Walker was named the MVP of the weekend competition with a decidedly dominant performance. Walker tallied 37 points and a monstrous 29 rebounds in the two games.

“I felt Marcedes played really well,” Berenato said. “She had a down game against Maryland, and she bounced back well.”

Walker had two double-doubles, raising her career total to 41.

Shavonte Zellous was named to the All-Tournament team with a pair of good games off the bench. Zellous averaged 16 points for the weekend.

“[Zellous] came off the bench and gave us a spark,” Berenato said.

The 18 points Zellous added Saturday put her over the 1,000-point mark for her career.

The Panthers upped their record to 5-2 overall with the two victories.

Pitt has a break in action until a home game tomorrow against Ohio University, and then must prepare for a clash with Duke at Madison Square Garden in New York on Dec. 8.

After all seven games have taken place on the road or in away tournaments, these two games will be the first home contests for the Panthers this season.

Pitt 70, Harvard 54

Walker’s first double-double of the weekend paced the Panthers to their win on Friday against Harvard.

The Crimson couldn’t stop Walker, who notched 14 points and 13 rebounds.

But another young contributor stepped up to propel Pitt to the victory as well. 6-foot-3-inch freshman Chelsea Cole added a double-double of her own with 12 points and 11 rebounds. It was the first double-double of her career.

The two interior players helped to frustrate the Crimson defensively. For the game, Harvard shot only 29.5 percent from the field.

Pitt outmuscled Harvard underneath as well, outrebounding the Crimson 53-39.

The only weakness the Panthers displayed all game was their lack of efficient free-throw shooting. After going 5-15 from the line in the first half, Pitt limped to 46.7 percent for the game in 30 attempts. Zellous added 14 points for the Panthers.

Pitt 70, Marshall 66

In the championship game, Pitt had to deal with the home crowd backing its Marshall squad, but the Panthers withstood a furious rally in the second half to hold off the Thundering Herd.

Walker was every bit as brilliant in the final as in the first game. Her 23 points and 16 rebounds in 37 minutes clinched her spot as the MVP of the tournament.

Zellous’ 18 points off the bench put her over the 1,000 mark for her career, making her the eighth-fastest player in Pitt history to do so.