Women's Basketball: Mountaineers Fall at Pitt
January 04, 2009 04:51 PM | General
January 4, 2009
| West Virginia 63, #19 Pitt 72 petersen events center pittsburgh, pa |
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Box Score |
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| Summary | ||||||||||||||
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| Stat Comparison | ||||||||||||||
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| FG Made-Att | 24-58 | 22-54 | ||||||||||||
| FG Percentage | 41.4% | 40.7% | ||||||||||||
| 3P Made-Att | 9-20 | 6-11 | ||||||||||||
| 3P Percentage | 45.0% | 54.5% | ||||||||||||
| FT Made-Att | 6-9 | 22-28 | ||||||||||||
| FT Percentage | 66.7% | 78.6% | ||||||||||||
| Rebounds | 32 | 37 | ||||||||||||
| Turnovers | 22 | 16 | ||||||||||||
| Top WVU Players | ||||||||||||||
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PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Pitt’s Shavonte Zellous scored a game-best 34 points, including 28 in the second half, to lead the No. 19/22 Panthers (11-2, 1-0) over a feisty West Virginia squad (10-3, 0-1), 72-63, in the BIG EAST opener for both teams at the Petersen Events Center Sunday afternoon.
Zellous’ performance, which included scoring Pitt’s first 16 points of the second half, overshadowed excellent efforts from Mountaineers Takisha Granberry, Liz Repella and Sarah Miles. The trio combined for 52 of WVU’s points in a contest that saw 11 lead changes and the score tied eight times.
Granberry tallied 22 points on 9-19 shooting including 4-8 from 3-point range, marking her sixth 20-point game on the season and fourth in her last five games. She also tallied eight rebounds and three steals against the Panthers extending her streak of having at least two steals in a game to 12 straight.
Repella notched her 12th-straight double figure scoring effort with 18 points and Miles added 12.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Xenia Stewart and Zellous extended Pitt’s lead to 55-47 forcing WVU Coach Mike Carey to take a timeout with 8:01 left. It was a lead the Mountaineers could not overcome despite the best efforts of Granberry down the stretch, cutting into Pitt’s lead at 64-63 with 2:13 left in the game. Those were the last points of the game for WVU.
Pitt out-rebounded WVU 37-32 in the game and forced 22 Mountaineer turnovers. The Panthers were also 22-28 from the free throw.
West Virginia took a 42-39 lead racing out of halftime before Zellous put Pitt on her back for the Panthers next five points to take a 44-42 advantage with 15:33 left in the game. Pitt still held its two point lead with 11:08 left in the contest after a Miles 3-pointer for West Virginia.
In first half action, Pitt held a 34-31 halftime advantage over the scrappy Mountaineers. Granberry and Repella had nine points a piece. Pitt used its size and took advantage of a short Mountaineer bench, getting to the free throw line in the bonus with 10 minutes left to go. From the free throw line, Pitt was 11-15 from the line and held a 21-14 rebound advantage. But West Virginia’s scrappiness forced eight turnovers and held the Panthers to just 39 percent shooting from the field in the first half.
WVU raced out to a quick 6-0 advantage to start the game, forcing the Panthers to take an early timeout just 1:18 into the contest. West Virginia held an 8-6 advantage at the first media timeout with 15:36 left in the first half.
Pitt then used its speed and size, forcing six West Virginia fouls, and hit six of its seven free throw opportunities by the 11:08 minute mark, giving the Panthers a 14-11 lead. Stewart had seven points in the early goings for Pitt.
Pitt kept its three point lead at 19-16 with 7:59 left in the first stanza. WVU then went on an 8-0 run to take a two point lead at 21-19 with 6:53 left in the first half. The run was fueled by Repella and Granberry 3-pointers and a layup from Miles after a Granberrry steal. The Panthers then retook the lead at 28-25 after a Zellous pull-up 12-footer and a step-back 3-pointer from Shayla Scott.
The two teams will meet once against this season in Morgantown on Feb. 24. WVU returns to action, Wednesday, Jan. 7, at 8 p.m., in its BIG EAST home opener against Cincinnati. The game will be broadcast via West Virginia PBS.
