Panthers open homestand against Mount St. Mary’s

For the fifth-straight year, the Mount St. Mary’s women’s basketball team will visit the Petersen Events Center.

And if the Panthers continue doing the things that propelled them to victory on Saturday over Loyola, the Mountaineers will head back to Emmittsburg, Md., empty-handed for the fifth time in a row.

The Pitt women’s basketball team returns home on Tuesday to face Mount St. Mary’s in a nonconference battle at 7 p.m. The Panthers have won all six previous meetings with the Mountaineers by an average of 25 points.

The Panthers (3-2), coming off a 60-54 win on the road over Loyola Saturday, committed only eight turnovers in the game, the fewest by a Pitt team since it committed six turnovers on March 21, 2009, against Montana.

Pitt will continue to rely on its offensive stalwarts in junior guard Brianna Kiesel, who averages 14.2 points per game, and senior forward Asia Logan, who averages 12.2 points per game.

Senior guard Sydney Henderson, who recently eclipsed the 1,000-career-points mark, leads a Mountaineers (2-4) offense that averages 70.5 points per game. Her 22.3 points per game account for more than 30 percent of Mount St. Mary’s total offensive output.

Kiesel and freshman guard Chelsea Welch, who logged 30 minutes against Loyola, will be tasked with defending the 5-foot-6 Henderson.

Outside of Henderson, the Mountaineers will need senior forwards Rachel Mathews and Jessie Kaufman to dominate the post. The pair should get plenty of chances to be aggressive in the first half, and Pitt’s forwards will have to be disciplined to stay out of foul trouble.

Controlling the area around the basket will be a point of emphasis for the Panthers, who are currently being out-rebounded by almost 10 rebounds per game.

Junior forward Chyna Golden, redshirt freshman center Marvadene “Bubbles” Anderson and junior center Cora McManus played a combined 38 minutes on Saturday. Head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio favored having four guards on the floor at the same time.

After the game, McConnell-Serio said she will use a lineup that is dictated by the flow of the game, and one that she believes gives Pitt the best chance to win.

“A win is a win. We pulled the game out by grinding it out, by changing the pace and being more aggressive on the offensive end,” McConnell-Serio said. “We plugged away one possession at a time. It was a hard-fought game and a great team win.”

The Mount St. Mary’s game marks the first of a three-game homestand for Pitt. The team won’t play on the road again until a Dec. 7 contest at Wagner College.