Women’s Basketball: Undersized Panthers face Wake Forest in ACC Tournament

There’s no getting around the improbability that Pitt will take the ACC Tournament by storm. Highlighted by undefeated, second-ranked Notre Dame, six of the conference’s teams finished the regular season ranked in The Associated Press Top 25.

But the Panthers won’t have to worry about running into any of the tough ACC powerhouses just yet. Instead, they’ll focus on a lesser opponent, who just happens to have one of the conference’s toughest individual performers.

The Pitt women’s basketball team is in Greensboro, N.C., participating in its first conference tournament as a member of the ACC. Pitt, seeded 14th of 15 teams, will take on the 11th-seeded Wake Forest Demon Deacons (14-15, 5-11 ACC) Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

The Panthers, led by first-year head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio, went 11-19 overall in the former Duquesne head coach’s first campaign. The team’s three conference victories marked the program’s first three in-conference regular-season wins since the team defeated Providence on Feb. 8, 2011.

Pitt (11-19, 3-13 ACC) has proven to be undersized and undermanned, and now the team faces a tough uphill battle toward making some noise in the tournament.

McConnell-Serio understands this.

“Every night we step out on the court we’re playing against a great team in a great conference,” she said following the Panthers’ 79-68 loss to North Carolina State in last Thursday’s home finale. “Our goal is to close that gap.”

If the Panthers going to begin to close that gap this season, particularly against a Wake Forest team that defeated the Panthers earlier in February by a score of 74-70, they need to take specific measures in order to do so.

The doors to relevancy in the tournament might seem barred from the Panthers, but there are a few keys that might loosen the lock.

Five keys for Pitt against Wake Forest:

Play big inside: This seems trite and even a bit redundant, but regardless, it is a must for the Panthers. When 6-foot-11 redshirt freshman center Marvadene “Bubbles” Anderson went down for the season with a torn ACL, the team instantly became one of the smallest in the ACC. Standing a modest 6-feet tall, senior forward Asia Logan is the team’s tallest remaining player who gets significant minutes. 

Pitt often struggles inside, surrendering easy points in the paint and getting dominated on the boards. Of the Panthers’ 30 games this season, they secured more rebounds than their opponents just seven times. In the games in which they did, they were 6-1. Pitt will certainly have its hands full on the glass against the Demon Deacons, as Wake Forest forward Dearica Hamby led the ACC with 10.9 rebounds per game.

Handle Hamby: The aforementioned Hamby is going to give the Panthers all they can handle. The junior forward out of Marietta, Ga., not only led the ACC in rebounding, but was also the conference’s leading scorer, averaging 21.7 points per game. A first-team All-ACC selection, the 6-foot-3 Hamby plays way bigger than her stature indicates and could give the small Panthers matchup problems. Pitt obviously needs Logan to step up even if she doesn’t size up, but it will have to be a team effort to key in on and limit the effectiveness of a player as good as Hamby.

Shooting Efficiency: One of the biggest issues for the Panthers this season has been their tendency to go cold from the field for long stretches of time, allowing teams to either capture or extend the lead. The team as a whole ranks last in the ACC in field-goal percentage, shooting an anemic 37 percent from the field. When they are hitting their shots, however, they are competitive, compiling an 8-3 record when shooting above 40 percent from the field this season. Since Pitt’s lack of size is likely to stymie an inside game, shooting efficiency is a must, especially from 3-point range, where, unsurprisingly, Pitt’s 28.5 percent shooting ranks last in the ACC.

Kiesel Must Carry: Junior point guard Brianna Kiesel has been the unquestioned star for the Panthers this entire season, elevating her game upon entering the ACC. The 5-foot-7 Kiesel averaged 16.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game this season, and the team relies on her more than any other player. But that reliance is also perhaps Kiesel’s biggest detractor. She has played all 40 minutes in six of the team’s final 15 games, and that heavy workload could finally catch up to the relentless floor general.

Find Kiesel’s Robin: Kiesel needs to play well for the Panthers to thrive, but more often than not the Panthers usually need both Batman and Robin in order to win. It hasn’t been consistently one player, but it will likely need to be either Logan, redshirt sophomore guard Loliya Briggs or senior guard Marquel Davis. Logan, who is 30 points away from 1,000 for her career, enters the final chapter of her collegiate career, but she needs to be more consistent offensively in order to thrive. Briggs and Davis have often shown flashes of potential throughout their careers, but disappear in games too often. One of these three will need to provide a viable second option so Wake Forest can’t simply key in on Kiesel.

The matchup will be aired on ROOT Sports and streamed on ESPN3. The winner will take on the sixth-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels on Thursday at 8 p.m.