Women’s basketball pulls out overtime victory

A strong rebounding effort coupled with a pesky defense helped lift the Pitt women’s… A strong rebounding effort coupled with a pesky defense helped lift the Pitt women’s basketball team to a 75-66 overtime victory over the Ohio Girls’ Basketball Magazine Legends Friday night at the Petersen Events Center.

Despite a Legend roster that boasted four professionals with either American Basketball League or Women’s National Basketball Association experience, the Panthers grabbed their first exhibition season victory by outrebounding the Legends 49-41 and creating 20 turnovers that included nine steals and three blocked shots.

“I told the girls before the game that this team would have a few WNBA players on it,” head coach Traci Waites said.

The game started approximately 45 minutes late because of travel difficulties for the Legends’ team, and caused the game to be shortened by five minutes in each half.

“I was glad the other team arrived because our girls were really ready to play tonight,” Waites said.

After the delay, the first half of the game featured wide-open play by both teams with quick ball movement inside. As a result of the quick ball movement, most of the first half points for the Panthers came in the form of layups and short jump shots.

While the Panthers relied on points in the paint, the Legends used strong perimeter passing to convert on three of eight attempts from behind the three-point line. The perimeter shooting of the Legends helped them gain a slim 29-26 lead at the half.

With the Legends holding the advantage in shooting, 48 percent to 30 percent, the Panthers used an eight-of-10 first half performance at the foul line to make up for the numerous missed put backs underneath.

The second half would play out much like the first with several lead changes and several tie scores. The pace of play was still up-tempo but as the second half reached the midway point, Pitt found itself trailing only by a point, 44-43.

With just about six minutes to go in regulation, Pitt forward Allisha Morris knocked down a pair of free throws to again pull the Panthers within one of the Legends. On the next possession for OGBM, the Panther defense stepped in and came away with a steal that resulted in senior guard Laine Selwyn taking it the distance for an uncontested layin, giving Pitt a 47-46 lead.

The Legends answered back with a six to zero run in the next minute of play, but the Legend run came to an abrupt halt when Pitt guard Haley Harguth dropped a high arching three-point basket in with only four minutes and 58 seconds to go in the game.

Heading down the stretch the teams traded baskets, with a couple more lead changes and tie scores.

With the score knotted at 58 and less than a minute remaining in regulation, the Legends pushed the ball down the court and found an open Vita Redding, who knocked down a three-point basket, giving the Legends a 61-58 lead.

The Panthers would answer back quickly with a clutch shot of their own. Selwyn drained a long three-point basket to knot the score at 61 with only 42 seconds to go.

After a traveling call on Legends guard Redding with 25.8 seconds to go, the Panthers broke through a full court press to hold on to the ball for the last shot to try to win. With several passes around the floor, the Panthers dropped the ball off to Harguth on the wing for a three-pointer, but Harguth’s attempt would rim out and the game headed for overtime tied 61-61.

In the extra period, OGBM grabbed its last lead of the game with a three-point basket from Jones, but after that, the Legends were shut down by a tenacious Panther defense and a resilient Pitt offense.

Down the stretch, the Panthers got crucial free-throw shooting from Selwyn, Brooke Stewart and LaToya Kincaid. The trio converted eight of 14 free throws and left the OGBM team defenseless as the Panthers outscored the Legends 14 to five in overtime.

Selwyn finished the game with a team-high 22 points and five assists while junior college transfer Kincaid chipped in 15 points and nine rebounds. Also playing key minutes for Pitt were Morris and Stewart. Morris tossed in 11 points and grabbed a game high 12 rebounds as Stewart added 12 points, most of which came late in the second half and overtime.

“Overall I was happy with our effort, but there is still room for improvement,” Waites noted. “Only seven turnovers in a game is very good, but our free-throw shooting could be a little bit better.”

Waites also noted that senior forward Mandy Wittenmyer didn’t play in this game but should return in a limited role for the team this week.

“Playing without Mandy is different for our team, but I was really proud of how Allisha and LaToya played,” Waites said. “I am impressed overall with what I saw from everybody tonight.”

The Panthers return to action this Friday at 7 p.m. when they host Team Concept in their last exhibition game of the season.