Pitt women earn ‘signature win’
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Pitt, which was expected to finish last in the Atlantic Coast Conference, made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Panthers, picked to finish at the bottom of the ACC in the preseason poll, continued their surprising season Saturday with a 51-40 victory over Chattanooga in first round of the NCAAs.
The Panthers, the No. 10 seed in the Spokane Region, will play No. 2 seed Tennessee Monday.
“What a special moment,” Pitt coach Suzie McConnell-Serio said. “The enthusiasm, the energy in the locker room, it’s just why you coach every single day, seeing your players with the smiles on their faces and the reaction to getting a win like this – a signature win.”
Stasha Carey scored 16 points and had 13 rebounds as Pitt (20-11) snapped Chattanooga’s 25-game winning streak.
The seventh-seeded Mocs (29-4) fell for the first time since a 57-52 loss at Arkansas State Dec. 1.
During the regular season, the Mocs beat Tennessee and Stanford when both were ranked in the top 10.
But they were no match for Pitt, which ended a string of four straight losing seasons.
“We could be playing the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Coach would go in and say we could win,” said Pitt guard Brianna Kiesel, who had 13 points and four assists. “She just gives us that type of confidence, and we feed off of her.”
Chattanooga shot a season-low 26.2 percent and continued a familiar postseason pattern.
Last year, the Mocs also had won 25 straight games before losing to Syracuse in the opening round. Chattanooga has eight straight NCAA Tournament losses since beating Rutgers in a 2004 first-round game.
Chattanooga upgraded its schedule this season in an attempt to be more prepared for whatever the Mocs might encounter in the tournament, but they fell behind 11-2 in the opening minutes and never led. Chattanooga had no answers for Carey, a 6-foot-2 freshman who outmuscled the Mocs.
“Most definitely, she was more physical than me,” said Jasmine Joyner, who led Chattanooga with 10 points and nine rebounds before fouling out.
“If she didn’t score the basket, she found a way for me to foul her so she could get easy free throws.”
The Mocs tied the score on two Alicia Payne free throws with 12:05 left, but they went cold the rest of the game as Pitt reeled off nine straight points to pull ahead for good.
Chattanooga went nearly seven minutes without a basket during one stretch in the second half against a Pitt team that entered the NCAA Tournament ranked second in the ACC in field-goal percentage defense (.362).
“Our defense is our main point of the game,” Carey said. “It’s where we’re strongest.”