Women’s basketball wins three, claims holiday tournament trophy

Playing three games in five days over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Panther women’s basketball… Playing three games in five days over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Panther women’s basketball team wasn’t in the giving mood. Instead, the Panthers decided to take the University of North Carolina-Greensboro holiday tournament, sweeping away the competition behind tournament Most Valuable Player Amy Kunich. The title marks the first tournament victory for the Panthers since 1998 when they won the Pittsburgh Panther Invitational.

The three straight wins are the most in a row since December 2002. The three wins already equal half of last year’s win total, in which the Panthers finished 6-20.

“[The Panthers] are so excited to have a trophy to put in the trophy case,” head coach Agnus Berenato said. “This team had never won a tournament. This team has high goals, and if we keep working hard and keep improving, and if they just keep listening and learning, then we can’t ask for anything more. We are excited to play at home; I hope we get a lot of students at the game Wednesday.”

Pitt 86, North Carolina A’T 71

Panther guard Kunich scored a career-high 25 points, and Cheron Taylor was one of four Panthers (3-0) with a double-double, scoring 16 points and pulling down 14 rebounds as the Panthers won their season-opener and snapped a 12-game losing streak dating back to last season.

Trailing by seven with less than eight minutes to play in the first half, the Panthers exploded with a 23-6 run, closing the half with a 10-point lead. The Panthers controlled the game in the second half and never trailed again, capitalizing at the free-throw line as the Lady Aggies (0-2) committed a total of 33 fouls in the game. The Panthers scored their final 13 points from the free-throw line.

“It was a total team effort,” Berenato said. “It was a great challenge for us, but we were able to really advance the ball. We had a good inside outside game.”

Kunich hit on seven of 13 attempts, including two of five from three-point range, helping her surpass her previous career high of 21 points set last year against Duquesne. Freshman Marcedes Walker scored 12 points and grabbed 16 rebounds — nine on the offensive side — in her first carrer collegiate start.

Pitt 73, South Carolina State 45

Returning to her home state of North Carolina, freshman guard Karlyle Lim came off the bench to score a game-high 16 points, leading the Panthers to the victory and a spot in the tournament’s championship game. Lim, who made her first career start against North Carolina A’T, connected on six of 11 attempts and added three assists, three rebounds and three steals in front of numerous members of her family.

The Panthers used a 16-2 run to close the first half and take an eight-point lead into the locker room. South Carolina State roared out of halftime with a 13-5 run to tie the game, but the Panthers scored 34 of the games last 40 points for the victory.

Junior Katie Histed scored 12 points and dished out a game-high five assists, while Jennifer Brown pulled down 10 rebounds to go with her eight points. As a team, the Panthers shot just 32.8 percent from the field, but they forced 24 turnovers and held the Bulldogs to a 29.6 field goal percentage.

Pitt 62, UNC-Greensboro 55

Playing in their first tournament championship game in almost six years, the Panthers quickly fell behind and were outplayed for almost the entire first half. They went into the locker room trailing 37-27.

The Spartans scored the game’s first six points and used a 21-11 to open the lead at the break.

“The first half, had it not been for the freshmen, we would have been losing 37-7,” Berenato said.

The second half was a different story, as the streaky Panthers took over the game at around the 11-minute mark. Trailing by 14, sophomore sharp-shooter Brooke Hughes sandwiched two big three-pointers between foul shots from both Histed and Kunich to cut the lead to five.

After Taylor scored the next four points in the game, Histed gave the Panthers their first lead on a steal and a layup with just less than seven minutes to go. The Spartans ended the Panthers’ 18-0 run and tied the score at 53 with more than four minutes to play.

Clinging to a small three-point lead, Hughes hit her third big three-pointer of the game, and the Panthers held on for the game and the tournament. In addition to Kunich being named the tournament’s most valuable player, Taylor was named to the All-Tournament Team.

Histed scored 15 points, and Walker added 12 points, while pulling down nine rebounds to pace the Panthers attack.

“We had the momentum if we could just get it to 10 at halftime, and we did,” Berenato said. “Then with about eight minutes left, we got some momentum to cut it to nine. The last eight minutes of the game were really important. I told them, underclassmen aren’t going to win games on the road; upperclassmen are going to win games on the road.”

The Panthers are back in action on Wednesday at 4 p.m. when they host Robert Morris in their home-opener.