Pitt Women Control the Greyhounds

By: Jackie Howell

Coming off a strong win from last game, the Pitt Panthers looked to channel that into this game against the Loyola Greyhounds, who are desperate for a win, since they have not won a single game this season. Just as Pitt intended to do, the Panthers triumphed against the Greyhounds, with a final score of 84-46.

Pitt opened the game immediately showing dominance, going on a 12-0 offensive run, forcing a Loyola timeout with less than three minutes into the game. Greyhound’s Lisa Mirarchi came off the time out scoring off of a layup, finally putting the team up on the board. The Panthers would answer to this going again on an offensive streak. The 7-point streak forced yet another Greyhound timeout with 15:19 remaining in the half.

The second timeout was able to slow Pitt down, since the team scored only four points before the first official TV timeout. However, Loyola did not capitalize on the slower offensive pace of the game, only having four points on the board with 11:37 left on the clock. Coming off the TV break, the Panthers yet again had a 7-2 run over the Greyhounds, forcing Loyola to take their third and final timeout with 10:02 on the clock.

Greyhound’s Colleen Marshall sank a three-pointer coming right off the time out. But, like the pattern so far in the game, this would be the only points established before the next TV timeout. Pitt scored another 7 points, Fred Potvin scoring a three-pointer and 5 points coming from Monica Wignot.

Loyola began to finally put some points up on the board, but they still trailed behind greatly. With 3:34 left of the first half and Pitt leading 47-18, the Greyhounds needed to pick up some offensive slack. They were only able to put up another four points before the end of the first half while the Panthers put up another seven, still in the lead at the conclusion of the first half.

With the score being 54-22, the pressure was on for Loyola to return to the game and make a comeback. On the other hand, it was important for Pitt to maintain a strong offensive presence while still play tough defense.

Pitt would remain on top for the remainder of the game. By the 15:49 mark of the second half, Pitt was still in the lead with greyhounds trailing by 33 points and also trailing by 35 points by the 11:44 mark. Between the second and third official TV timeout of the second half, the Greyhounds were able to limit Pitt to scoring two points, but like the pattern of this game, Loyola did not capitalize on the slower offensive pace and only scored four points during their offensive run.

Ultimately, the Panthers were able to come out victorious this game, never giving the Greyhounds an opportunity to get ahead.

This was yet another game where Pitt set another school record, this time with 14 total blocks, the most blocks during a game. Senior forward Monica Wignot contributed four of these blocks, a game-high for her. She also entered into this game being ranked 3rd in the ACC for blocks per game. Besides the game-high rejections, she contributed 12 points on the board, had eight rebounds and five assists.

Brianna Kiesel had a game-high of 21 points and was able to assist four players in scoring double-digits. This was also her third time this season scoring above 20 points. Stasha Carey was able to score 15 points and Fred Potvin scored 12 points as well.

This game marked the season-high percentage for 3-pointers made for Pitt, making 11 of their 17 attempts (64.7 percent). This game was also a season-high for overall shots made (34 out of 58 or 58.6 percent). The Panthers had a total of 22 assists, making this the third game this season with above 20 assists.

The Panthers now head on the road to face a tough competitor, Ohio State Buckeyes. Tip off will begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, December 3rd.