Berenato’s squad has lost its shooting touch

Twenty days ago, in this paper, I wrote the game story for an 85-81 victory for the women’s… Twenty days ago, in this paper, I wrote the game story for an 85-81 victory for the women’s basketball team over Georgetown. That win moved the team to 11-6 (3-3 in the Big East) and gave coach Agnus Berenato her 300th career win.

A couple of days later, I also had the pleasure of interviewing Berenato and writing a feature for The Pitt News on her career to commemorate the milestone.

Maybe I need to apologize for starting a jinx, because it hasn’t been as sunny in the land of Pitt women’s hoops over the last three weeks. The team has dropped five in a row, falling to 11-11 overall and 3-8 in conference play. They are currently stuck in a shooting slump that harkens back to the days of John Starks in the NBA playoffs.

Of course, any criticism should be put in perspective, and it should be noted that the five straight losses came against teams with winning records, and that only one — St. John’s this past Saturday — did not have votes in the national polls when they met the Panthers.

But while the quality of opposition was first-class, the rim isn’t any higher at Boston College or any smaller at St. John’s — and if you don’t believe me, I’ll get Gene Hackman to bring his tape measure to the court.

The raw numbers from the last five games are downright depressing — 32.7 percent from the floor, 25 percent from 3-point range, 58.2 percent from the free-throw line. And the totally irrelevant stat department tells me that, all totaled, that’s 216 shots missed in five games and 43.2 shots that draw nothing but glass, iron or air per game.

The source of the trouble is even harder to detect. While Pitt has played tougher defenses, the shot attempts have been there. A lot of them have been open shots. They just aren’t falling.

Marcedes Walker has been scoring with regularity, with 14.3 points per game and shooting 49.3 percent for the year. The other interior players for the Panthers have struggled.

Jennifer Brown, the Panthers’ other low-post threat, third in the Big East in offensive rebounding, has only averaged 7.8 points per game over the last five. Her shots have been erratic at best, often shooting too strong on layups under the duress brought on by opposing defenders. Her post moves remain effective at getting her looks at the goal, but her finishing has been lacking.

After a game against Syracuse in January, Berenato talked about the difference between open shots and good shots.

“[Deep] shots, they’re going to be there with eight seconds or less on the shot clock. We don’t need to take those quickly,” she said.

Offensively, she always wants to work the ball inside and then back to the outside. In some instances, like in the Syracuse game, the team has failed to do so. But sometimes, as defenses continue to double- and triple-team Walker, the ball gets back to the perimeter players and they still can’t connect from long range.

No Panther is currently over 40 percent from 3-point range for the season. Katie Histed, the second-leading scorer on the team, has consistently shot in the high 30s, but players like Amy Kunich, Vika Sholokhova and Jessica Allen are all shooting below 30 percent — driving an exasperated Berenato after the loss to Connecticut to say, “I guess next year we just recruit guards.”

The coaching staff has assembled tapes of every shot the players took in some games, allowing them to look at which shots were rushed or were poorly taken, and which ones were “good shots.” The team goes through shooting drills in practice and spends lots of time working on offensive sets, yet the woes continue.

With their next two games at home, against high-scoring West Virginia and lowly Providence, the schedule at least provides good opponents for Pitt to regain its collective shooting touch.

Defensively, the Panthers have played very hard, and usually well, and it has kept them in most of their games this year. But without the ability to score, the winning ways of November and December could remain distant memories.

Matt Grubba is a senior staff writer for The Pitt News, and he will never jinx the women’s basketball game. E-Mail him at Grubba@comcast.net.