Pitt 72, West Virginia 60
February 24, 2009 10:52 PM | General
February 24, 2009
| #15 Pitt 72, West Virginia 60 WVU Coliseum Morgantown, W.Va. |
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| FG Made-Att | 26-66 | 22-57 | ||||||||||||
| FG Percentage | 39.4% | 38.6% | ||||||||||||
| 3P Made-Att | 4-15 | 5-18 | ||||||||||||
| 3P Percentage | 26.7% | 27.8% | ||||||||||||
| FT Made-Att | 16-25 | 11-18 | ||||||||||||
| FT Percentage | 64.0% | 61.1% | ||||||||||||
| Rebounds | 43 | 40 | ||||||||||||
| Turnovers | 4 | 15 | ||||||||||||
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Despite keeping No. 15 Pitt under control until midway through the second half, the West Virginia University women’s basketball team was unable to finish the job as the Panthers defeated the Mountaineers 72-60.
WVU (15-12, 3-10 BIG EAST) received a team-high 17 points from sophomore Liz Repella, who registered 13 in the second half, and senior Takisha Granberry scored 16 points on 3-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc as West Virginia fell victim late to the sharp-shooting Pitt attack led by Shavonte Zellous and Shayla Scott.
Zellous scored a game-high 25 points, including 16 in the second half, for her 50th career 20-point game, 18th this season. She also added six rebounds and two assists, while playing with four fouls in the second half for Pitt, which improves to 21-5 overall, 11-3 in league action.
Scott hit a key 3-pointer in the second half and was 4-of-4 from the charity stripe, finishing the contest with 12 points. WVU was also unable to match the presence of Pitt center Pepper Wilson, who grabbed 10 rebounds and also added eight points.
“They did a great job taking care of the basketball and that was the difference,” Coach Mike Carey said. “In the second half, they scored 44 points and a lot of them were off of our turnovers. We would get down there, penetrate, and then throw the ball away.”
Early in the second half, West Virginia went down seven before taking a timeout and regrouping. With 18:26 left in the half, Granberry hit a 3-pointer and then senior Ashley Powell gathered a missed Pitt shot and took it down the floor for a layup, cutting the Pitt lead to two.
The Mountaineers tied the game with 15:06 left on a layup by freshman Natalie Burton, who was fouled and made the free throw to tie the game at 38. West Virginia then took the lead a little more than a minute later on a Repella jumper, which she was fouled and made the free throw for the three point play, bringing the game to 41-39.
Pitt’s Chelsea Cole answered with a layup, followed by two layups from Wilson and four points from Xenia Stewart to build the Pitt lead back up to 10.
“We fouled and we had a lot of ones that were real close, but I thought the officiating was good. It is just the turnovers,” Carey said. “Our margin of error is so small. When we turn the ball over that many times, we’re not going to win many games, especially against teams like Pitt.”
West Virginia started the game with an 8-5 lead from two free-throws by Repella before going on a 9-0 run, capped by a pair of free throws from junior Alex Sanabria.
“They rotate their big girls in so they can keep fresh legs in there,” Carey said. “That makes it challenging. I think when we were keeping them off the offensive boards, that we were running them, and getting some easy ones.”
West Virginia held a 17-5 lead at the 12:17 mark in the first half. The Mountaineers had eight-point leads four separate times until Pitt tied it at 25-25 with a Zellous layup with 1:37 to go in the half.
Scott then hit a big 3-pointer to put the Panthers up three before sophomore Sarah Miles hit a jumper to bring West Virginia back within one, going into halftime with Pitt leading 28-27.
Pitt ended the game with eight different scorers, and nine different Panthers grabbed at least one rebound.
West Virginia is back in action at the Coliseum Saturday Feb. 28 against Syracuse at 2 p.m. West Virginia will be honoring seniors Granberry and Powell.
