Kincaid emerged as a solid team leader for Panthers last season

Coming into the 2003-04 Pitt women’s basketball season, senior forward Latoya Kincaid… Coming into the 2003-04 Pitt women’s basketball season, senior forward Latoya Kincaid averaged 11 minutes per game and 3.1 points, but this past season, her role changed drastically — she emerged as the team leader.

Kincaid, a Pensacola Junior College transfer in 2002, led the Panthers in five categories this past season: points per game, rebounds, steals, shooting percentage and free throw percentage. As a result of some of these accomplishments, Kincaid has been named The Pitt News Female Athlete of the Winter. Another accolade that she received was Honorable Mention All Big East.

“I didn’t [expect to be the team leader],” Kincaid said. “I came in and tried to help my team, and I wasn’t worried too much about trying to be the main player.”

This season, she averaged 14.4 points per game and 7.3 rebounds. To go along with the previous categories, Kincaid shot 75.4 percent from the charity stripe, came up with 31 steals and shot 44.3 percent from the field.

“You can always call her number,” Pitt women’s basketball head coach Agnus Berenato said. “She’s really made my experience very pleasurable, and I’m sorry I don’t have more time with her.”

Kincaid’s goal this season was to help the team make it to the postseason tournaments, but she didn’t imagine that her teammates would be looking to her as the go-to player. Even though her role was unexpected, she met the challenge head-on.

“I accepted the challenge, and I knew that they were depending on me,” Kincaid said. “So I knew I had to work harder and do better than I had been.”

Her most memorable moment of the season was when the Panthers won their first Big East contest of the season. Pitt took on Seton Hall, and Berenato put Kincaid on the bench.

Before being benched, Kincaid scored only two points, but when she finally returned to the game, she erupted for 27 points, which gave her a career-high 29 points for the game. The Panthers went on to beat Seton Hall 61-56.

“It was our first win, and we all came together,” Kincaid said. “Everybody started to have confidence in each other.”

She credits the Seton Hall game as the turning point of her season. After eclipsing the 20-point mark for the first time in her career at Pitt, Kincaid went on to score 20 or more points in three other games, while recording five double-doubles on the season.

“I knew I could do it,” Kincaid said. “At the beginning of the [Seton Hall] game, I wasn’t doing too well, and coach [Berenato] sat me on the bench for a while.”

Kincaid finished her career at Pitt having played in 54 games and starting 30 of them. She recorded 461 points and grabbed 256 rebounds in two seasons.