Bubble Buster — Women beat Cincy, fall to DePaul in second round

HARTFORD, Conn. – In just her third year, Coach Agnus Berenato has made the Pitt women’s… HARTFORD, Conn. – In just her third year, Coach Agnus Berenato has made the Pitt women’s basketball program into a legitimate Big East contender.

Pitt advanced to its second Big East Conference Tournament since Beranato has arrived and defeated Cincinnati in the first round before falling to No. 15 DePaul in the second during the first weekend in March. Nonetheless, the Panthers (19-10) have positioned themselves to continue their postseason.

Pitt 77, Cincinnati 62

Berenato led the Panthers to a No. 6 seed, their highest Big East Tournament position since 1995. Pitt took the floor of the Hartford Civic Center to match up against the No. 11 seeded Bearcats looking to improve to 19 wins for just the fifth time in school history.

Berenato’s squad came ready to play in the first half. Sophomore Marcedes Walker and junior Mallorie Winn were on the same page early, hooking up for the first six Panther points.

“I thought we had tremendous inside-outside presence,” Berenato said.

Pitt was able to break away and extend its lead to as many as 15, starting with a Winn steal at 15:24, sparking a 15-2 Panthers run.

However, Cincinnati mustered some offense from forwards Shelly Bellman and Michelle Jones along with guard Treasure Humphries. The trio combined for 23 of the Bearcats’ 27 first-half points.

But Walker was too much for Cincinnati to handle in the first 20 minutes. The center shot five of six from the field and added two free throws to tally 12 points to go along with four rebounds, pacing the Panthers to a 10-point lead.

“Whoever we play, we know they’re going to double- and triple-team Marcedes,” Winn said. “We try to get it into her and if she’s not open we [perimeter players] have to get our shot and knock it down.”

But whatever Cincinnati head coach Laurie Pirtle told Bellman during the break worked. The freshman guard connected on three consecutive 3-pointers, scoring nine points in just over a minute to cut the Panther lead to four with plenty of time left in the second half. Bellman led all scorers with 22.

“She played extremely well,” Winn said of Bellman. “I can’t really say we shut her down in any way.

“Any time you have a great shooter like that you have to stay in her face.”

That would be as close as the Bearcats got, though, as Walker, Winn, Taylor and freshman Shavonte Zellous all scored in double digits to put Cincinnati away 77-62. Winn connected on three of five from beyond the arc on her way to 21 points.

“Everybody just happened to be on on the right night,” Berenato said of her team’s offense. “I have a lot of confidence in this team and I thought we played really well.”

Overall, the Panthers shot a fantastic 61 percent from the floor, the second highest single-game shooting percentage in Big East Tournament history.

“For us to shoot 61 percent says that we took really good shots,” Berenato said. “I thought we were very disciplined.”

Pitt 46, DePaul 69

The last time the Panthers and Blue Demons met, Pitt came dangerously close to snapping DePaul’s 30-game home win streak in Chicago. The Panthers led by as many as five points in the second half, only to be topped by then No. 11 DePaul, 81-75.

Coach Doug Bruno remembered, and the Blue Demons made sure to prove why they are ranked No. 15 in the country. DePaul brought both three-quarter and full-court pressure on the Panthers to throw Winn and the Pitt offense into a funk and force 13 turnovers in the first half.

“[DePaul] really focused on Mallorie and Marcedes and our surrounding cast seemed shell shocked,” Berenato said.

The Panthers didn’t help themselves on offense, either. Pitt shot a miserable 23 percent from the field, falling behind the Blue Demons by as many as 18 with 6:42 left in the half.

Pitt would struggle to a small comeback, though. The team hit nine of 10 free throws in the final six minutes, with Zellous adding a streaking layup with two seconds left in the half to cut the score to 29-20.

“Pittsburgh is a good basketball team,” Bruno said after the game. “If you don’t play at your highest level, they’re going to make plays on you.”

If DePaul wasn’t at its highest level in the second half, it was pretty close to it.

The Panthers never got going. Despite a quick and-one by Xenia Stewart to pull within six in the opening minute of the second half, DePaul opened up a whopping 31-point lead en route to a 69-46 victory.

Pitt played back-to-back games for the first time since December and felt the fatigue of playing high-level basketball on consecutive nights.

“We have to prepare ourselves for playing back-to-back games in practice,” Walker said.

“We had less than a day to change our focus [from Cincinnati] to DePaul,” Winn added.