Pitt stumbles against Mountaineers

With almost four minutes gone in the game, Pitt forward Sheila Stufflet drove through the… With almost four minutes gone in the game, Pitt forward Sheila Stufflet drove through the lane and hit a pull-up jump shot to cut West Virginia’s lead to one.

And that was as close as the women’s basketball team would get to defeating the Mountaineers.

A minute later, West Virginia guard Sherell Sowho hit a three-pointer to extend the Mountaineers lead to 7-3. The Mountaineers’ offense did not stop there, as West Virginia went on to build a 20-point lead with 4:19 remaining in the first half.

With that, the Panthers (6-12 overall, 2-6 Big East) lost their fourth straight Big East conference game, 56-36, on Saturday afternoon at the Petersen Events Center.

With the score 7-3, Sowho, who finished the game with 13 points and eight rebounds, pulled down an offensive rebound and dished the ball to senior forward Michelle Carter. Carter drove into the lane, spun around a Pitt defender, and laid the ball in.

On the next Mountaineer (15-5, 6-2) possession, Pitt guard Brooke Hughes fell down trying to defend senior guard Kate Bulger.

Kate Bulger drove into the paint and passed it to her sister, freshman guard Meg Bulger. Meg Bulger took the pass and laid the ball in to put West Virginia up 11-5.

The Mountaineers then went on a 20-6 run over the next nine minutes, with Meg Bulger leading the way.

Sowho and Meg Bulger connected on three two-point plays to start the West Virginia run. Sowho passed the ball across to Meg Bulger, who pulled up and hit the three-pointer to put the Mountaineers up 23-8.

Guard Yolanda Paige followed Meg Bulger’s three-pointer with two free throws. Paige then drove into the paint with ease and made a layup, making the score 31-11.

The second half scoring was fairly even, with West Virginia having the 17-15 edge.

The game was basically decided in the first half, but after an intentional foul in the second half led to five West Virginia points, Pitt’s fate was sealed.

Sowho ran down the court on a fast break and was intentionally fouled from behind. She hit both of her free throws and Kate Bulger nailed a three-pointer on the inbound to give West Virginia a 46-28 lead.

“We said [in practices leading up to the game] we were not going to be Bulgerized,” said Pitt head coach Agnus Berenato.

Berenato said she’d sleep happy because Kate Bulger, West Virginia’s leading scorer, didn’t score 28 points. She finished the game with seven points and eight rebounds, and her sister finished the game with seven rebounds and 13 points — 11 of which came in the first half.

The score was deceiving in that the Panthers did a good job defensively, holding the Mountaineers to 56 points. Berenato was pleased because West Virginia had averaged 69.2 points per game before Saturday’s game.

The problem lay in the Panthers failure on shots. Pitt finished the game only hitting 26.9 percent of shots taken.

Another area for concern was rebounding. West Virginia out-rebounded Pitt 52-34.

“Rebounding was definitely a factor,” Berenato said, adding that West Virginia held a two-to-one rebound advantage in the first half. “The second half, they went to town.”

Paige finished with six points and 11 assists. Eight of those assists came in the first half and fueled West Virginia’s run.

“The reason she didn’t set our school record is because we didn’t hit a shot in the second half,” West Virginia head coach Mike Carey said, referring to the fact his team only made 20.6 percent of their shots in the second half.

Pitt forward LaToya Kincaid had trouble from the floor, hitting only three of 13 field goals. She did, however, pull down 12 rebounds, which led both teams.

Freshman forward Jennifer Brown came off the bench, notching 17 minutes of playing time, and led the Panthers in scoring with eight points

The Panthers are back in action on Thursday at Boston College. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.