Coming into Thursday night’s ACC contest against Louisville, the Pitt Women’s Basketball Team had hopes of replicating Feb. 14, 2010, the last time the Panthers bested the Cardinals, but were undone in the second half, dropping a 65-53 decision at the Petersen Events Center.
“Really proud of our effort tonight, I thought we played extremely hard defensively,” Pitt coach Tory Verdi said after the game. “We executed and just couldn’t score down the stretch. Foul trouble led to that. There were several possessions where we couldn’t score the ball and turnovers down the stretch led to scores on the other end. We couldn’t claw our way back. I thought that our effort, especially in the first half we played well. We played together and were connected it was easy to see.”
Pitt (8-9/0-4 ACC) was led by Khadija Faye’s 16 points, while she also grabbed seven rebounds, before fouling out. Marley Washenitz added 12 points, while MaKayla Elmore brought down nine rebounds. The Panthers were 14-for-16 from the free-throw line.
Louisville (11-5/4-1 ACC) saw four scorers achieve double figures, paced by leading scorer Tajianna Roberts’s 17 points. Ja’Leah Williams contributed 11 points, while both Jayda Curry and Nyla Harris chimed in with 10 points apiece.
The Cardinals scored 20 points of 20 Pitt miscues.
Points came at a premium in the early stages of the first quarter, but it was Pitt who earned the game’s first run with a 7-2 run, keyed by a pair of Faye baskets.
Washenitz would find Elmore, capitalizing on a 2:26 scoreless drought from Louisville, to complete the run.
Pitt maintained its lead, but with 3:30 remaining in the first quarter, Faye picked up her second foul and sat out the remainder of the period.
Aislin Malcolm provided a spark off the bench with a pair of three-point baskets. Her first came a steal and find from teammate Aaryn Battle. Malcolm struck for a second time when Brooklynn Miles found her. This gave the Panthers their largest lead of the quarter at eight points.
Ultimately, Pitt held a 17-13 lead after a quarter after Louisville scored twice with less than a minute to play.
Pitt’s Audrey Biggs greeted the second quarter with a driving layup, but it was a slow start offensively for the Panthers as that was their lone make on the opening seven tries.
Louisville would cut the deficit to a pair of points multiple times but could not get over the hump.
A 7-0 Pitt allowed the game to open up its advantage. Faye sank a pair of free throws and then Miles found Washenitz from deep. Elmore concluded the run as a frenzied play saw Washenitz with the basketball and her baseball pass found her wide-open teammate who finished.
Pitt led 28-21 at halftime.
The third quarter is typically the Panthers quarter, outscoring opponents by a combined 59 points entering Thursday.
Instead, it was Louisville holding Pitt scoreless for 6:29 dating back to the second quarter and using a 12-3 run during that time to tie the game.
Pitt’s basket was a Washenitz three pointer from Battle, but the Cardinal responded with five points and coach Tory Verdi spent his first timeout.
Prior to the timeout, Faye picked up her fourth whistle, as official Krystle Apellaniz called offsetting fouls much to Verdi’s displeasure.
With Faye out, Louisville began to utilize offensive rebounds to its advantage, including its first possession coming out of the timeout in which it had four opportunities to score.
Miles would briefly tie the game, but the Cardinals did enough to distinguish themselves on the scoreboard by a 37-35 count.
Battle needed 19 seconds of fourth quarter action to tie the game, but Louisville’s Merissah Russell quickly buried a three-point shot to reclaim the lead.
The three-point line was good to Louisville in the fourth quarter with four makes from downtown, two of which came from Roberts 17 seconds apart, extending the lead to 10 points as Pitt spent another timeout.
Down by nine, Pitt had a chance to get back into the game after Louisville committed an intentional foul. Battle made both free throws, but then quickly conceded another basket and would shortly after commit an intentional foul of their own.
The setback is Pitt’s closest to Louisville at home since Jan. 4, 2015. Pitt remains home for its next game, a Sunday contest against SMU, slated for a 1 p.m. tip.
“Our goal was to just get a little bit better and keep at it and understand that regardless of the results, when you’re in practice you have to give everything you have,” concluded Verdi. “Keep grinding, keep believing. Don’t question the why and understand that the results may not go your way but that doesn’t mean you stop working practice. I thought we were really good yesterday, we competed and had really good energy tonight. We didn’t get the win and it’s unfortunate, but we played hard. Now you can’t stop, and we’ve got to get back at it and do the things we’re doing.”
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