Panthers’ comeback falls short against St. John’s

On Wednesday, the Pitt women’s basketball team captured a key Big East victory on the road… On Wednesday, the Pitt women’s basketball team captured a key Big East victory on the road against Georgetown.

On Saturday, the Panthers returned home in search of a second consecutive conference win against St. John’s, who they defeated earlier this month.

However, the Panthers dug themselves into a hole early in the game and never got out of it. Despite battling back on a determined effort, they were beaten by the Red Storm, 69-66.

“We came out and turned the ball over ridiculously,” Pitt head coach Traci Waites said. “It’s kind of embarrassing.”

Though the Panthers defeated the Red Storm 75-51 earlier in the season, they knew going in that this game would be challenging. The Red Storm had to play the previous meeting without the help of their star guard Danielle Rainey.

Rainey didn’t sit out this match, however, and seemed to be the difference in the two games. She poured in a game-high 33 points and pulled down eight rebounds for the Red Storm.

“I feel that she beat us herself,” Laine Selwyn said of Rainey. “She’s tough and she knew when to take over.”

Selwyn had the responsibility of guarding Rainey on several occasions throughout the game. However, Rainey managed to use her size as an advantage and her clutch shooting to dominate Selwyn and the Panthers.

“She’s phenomenal,” Waites said.

St. John’s jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, controlling the tempo throughout the majority of the game. By halftime, the lead was increased to eight, and the Red Storm went into the locker room with a 29-21 advantage.

“We started the game really slow and had to fight back in the second half,” Selwyn said.

Pitt did fight back and came close to taking over. Selwyn and guard Brooke Stewart combined to knock down eight quick points to start the second half to create a momentum change in favor of the Panthers.

They captured their first and only lead, 35-33, within the first four minutes of the second half with a basket by guard Amy Kunich.

The lead did not last, however, as the Red Storm quickly responded. Rainey continued to tally points for St. John’s as it regained the lead.

Another burst of energy erupted for the Red Storm, as they capitalized and scored several points off Pitt turnovers. Midway through the second half, the Panthers were back to trailing by seven.

Turnovers were costly for Pitt, as well as losing many rebounds. St. John’s was able to turn Pitt turnovers into 19 points and it outrebounded the Panthers, 37-28.

Though Pitt never gave up and continued to hit big shots, it was never able to catch up to St. John’s again. Selwyn and Kunich scored 23 and 19 points respectively for the Panthers, but that was not enough.

Pitt fell short of a victory once again, despite impressive shooting statistics. The team has a week off before traveling to Providence Saturday afternoon, where it will seek revenge over a 80-77 loss to Providence earlier this season.

“I know we can beat them,” Selwyn said of Providence. “We’ve got to pick it up.”