2008-09 Game Summaries GAME 28 (22-6, 12-4 BIG EAST) MARCH 2, 2009 #14 PITT 79 ■ ST. JOHN’S 60 PETERSEN EVENTS CENTER
GAME 29 (23-6, 12-4 BIG EAST) MARCH 8, 2009 #14 PITT 62 ■ DEPAUL 59 XL CENTER
GAME 30 (23-7, 12-4 BIG EAST) MARCH 9, 2009 #5 LOUISVILLE 69 ■ #14 PITT 63 XL CENTER
PITTSBURGH — Shavonte Zellous scored 18 points in her final home game and Pittsburgh (No. 20 ESPN/ USA Today, No. 14 AP) rebounded from a loss by defeating St. John’s 79-60. The Panthers (22-6, 12-4 in Big East) opened up a 13point lead at halftime and had few problems in tying the school record for regular-season victories. Pitt was coming off a 75-51 loss to No. 7 Louisville on Saturday. Sky Lindsay scored 16 points and Kelly McManmon had 12 for St. John’s (16-13, 4-12), which dropped its fifth in six games. Zellous, who has 2,136 points, and Xenia Stewart each ended their regular-season careers at home for the Panthers, who are 92-37 the past four seasons after going 39-70 the previous four. Stewart scored 12 points, giving her 1,284 for her career. Pepper Wilson added 12 points and 11 rebounds and Sophronia Sallard had 10 points for Pitt, which previously clinched third place in the Big East standings.
HARTFORD, CONN. (AP) — Shavonte Zellous took a few seconds at halftime to pause and relax. The moment to reflect was all she needed to get herself going in the second half as she scored 15 of her 18 points after the break to help No. 14 Pittsburgh hold off DePaul 62-59 in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament. Pittsburgh (23-6) led 60-55 on Xenia Stewart’s free throw with 1:40 left, but DePaul (23-9) wasn’t done. Deirdre Naughton had a three-point play and Keisha Hampton hit one free throw to cut the deficit to 60-59 with 44.7 seconds left. Stewart scored 14 points and Sophronia Sallard added 12 for Pitt. Trailing 49-40, DePaul went on a 13-5 run to cut the deficit to 54-53 on Williams’ layup. She had a chance to complete the three-point play and tie it, but missed the free throw. Stewart hit a jumper and Zellous had a three-point play to make it 59-53. Williams’ layup set up the exciting finish. Pitt built its lead early in the second half turning a twopoint edge into a 45-33 advantage with a 12-2 spurt. Zellous, the Big East’s second-leading scorer at 22.6 points, ignited the burst with her first basket of the game. Naughton was held scoreless until she hit two free throws with just over a minute left in the first half to give DePaul a 28-27 lead at the break. Zellous was 0-for-6 from the field and had three points at the intermission. She wasn’t the only Panthers player to struggle from the field. The team was just 9-for-34 (27 percent). DePaul wasn’t much better going 9-for-35 (26 percent). Third-seeded Pittsburgh got a bye through the first two rounds of the tournament. The Blue Demons advanced to the quarterfinals by beating West Virginia 75-72 in overtime.
HARTFORD, CONN. (AP) — For the second straight year, Louisville and Connecticut will meet in the Big East championship game. McCoughtry scored 31 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to help No. 5 Louisville (29-3) hold off 14thranked Pittsburgh 69-63 setting up the championship rematch. Trailing 63-62 with 1:40 left, McCoughtry’s three-point play gave Louisville a two-point edge with 1:12 left. After a turnover by Xenia Stewart, McCoughtry hit a pull-up jumper from the wing with 23.5 seconds remaining to make it 67-63. Deseree Byrd hit two free throws for the final margin. Shavonte Zellous scored 24 points to lead Pittsburgh (23-7). Trailing by 10 at the break, Pittsburgh rallied to within one behind Zellous. She scored seven points as the Panthers opened the second half with a 14-4 run to cut the deficit to 46-45. McCoughtry and Louisville answered scoring the next eight points to make it 54-45 with 11:06 left in the game. Pitt wasn’t done, going on a 18-8 burst to take a 6362 lead - its first lead since early in the first half. Pepper Wilson, who had a career-high 16 points, hit back-to-back layups to cap the run and give the Panthers the edge. Third-seeded Pittsburgh made it to this round by edging DePaul 62-59 on Sunday night. Pitt faced Louisville on Feb 28 at the Cardinals senior day. Louisville won 75-51 as Candyce Bingham scored 26 points. In the first half Monday, Louisville struggled early on and was trailing 14-13 before going on a 12-2 run to take a 25-16 advantage. McCoughtry had six points during the burst. Pittsburgh then scored six straight to make it a threepoint game. But Louisville rebuilt its double-digit margin rattling off 11 of the next 12 points and led 41-31 at the half.
ST. JOHN’S (60)
DEPAUL (59)
Player Stevens-F McCorvey-F Ledbetter-F Lindsay-G McManmon-G Moore Murphy Hodges Hart Mitchell Team Totals
Min. 19 26 23 38 37 8 14 8 13 14
FG- 3FGFGA FGA 3-10 0-0 3-5 0-0 0-4 0-0 6-10 1-1 5-11 2-8 0-1 0-0 0-2 0-2 2-4 0-0 2-6 0-0 3-9 0-0
200
24-62 3-11
FTFTA RB 2-4 1 3-4 8 0-0 4 3-7 4 0-0 2 0-0 0 0-0 0 0-0 5 0-2 2 1-1 6 5 9-18 37
PF 5 0 2 3 3 2 1 1 1 2 20
A TO BLK 1 3 0 4 2 1 2 3 0 4 1 0 5 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 1 1 20
14
2
S 0 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 2
PTS 8 9 0 16 12 0 0 4 4 7
6
60
PITT (79) Player Sallard-F Scott-F Wilson-C Zellous-G Stewart-G Harrison Cole Ogoke Nwude Popovec Team Totals
Min. 27 20 25 34 36 15 16 8 3 16
FG- 3FGFGA FGA 5-5 0-0 3-7 2-4 5-9 0-0 6-13 1-1 4-9 1-2 4-8 0-2 3-6 0-0 0-2 0-0 0-1 0-0 2-5 0-0
200
32-65 4-9
FTFTA RB 0-0 1 1-1 5 2-3 11 5-8 3 3-4 5 0-0 2 0-0 7 0-0 0 0-2 1 0-1 6 1 11-19 42
PF 2 3 4 2 2 0 1 0 0 1 15
A TO BLK 3 4 0 3 1 0 0 2 1 2 4 0 4 0 1 5 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 18
14
5
S 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
PTS 10 9 12 18 12 8 6 0 0 4
2
79
Halftime-PITT 43-30; FG pct. - PITT .492, SJU .387. 3-pt. FG pct. - PITT .444, SJU .273; FT pct. - PITT .579, SJU .500.
Player Williams-F Hampton-F Threatt-G Quigley-G Naughton-G Cattell Medley Havel Team Totals
Min. 36 26 29 32 36 7 11 23 200
FG- 3FGFGA FGA 9-16 0-0 4-13 2-4 3-7 1-2 3-9 3-7 2-15 0-6 0-2 0-1 0-2 0-0 0-1 0-1
FTFTA RB 3-6 6 2-4 3 0-0 2 2-2 4 4-5 10 0-0 0 0-0 2 0-0 1 10 21-65 6-21 11-17 38
PF 3 2 1 3 0 2 3 2 16
A TO BLK 2 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 5 2 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 12
12
4
S 0 1 1 1 4 0 0 0
PTS 21 12 7 11 8 0 0 0
7
59
PITT (62) Player Popovec-C Zellous-G Sallard-F Scott-F Stewart-G Harrison Cole Wilson Team Totals
Min. 2 35 37 37 35 9 24 21 200
FG- 3FG- FTFGA FGA FTA RB 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 4-14 0-1 10-13 4 6-13 0-0 0-0 6 3-9 1-3 0-1 12 5-11 1-3 3-4 5 1-3 0-1 1-1 2 2-6 0-0 1-2 7 1-6 0-0 1-2 9 5 22-63 2-8 16-23 50
PF 0 1 1 2 1 2 3 4
A TO BLK 0 0 0 2 1 2 1 5 3 1 1 0 0 1 1 2 1 0 0 3 1 0 1 1
S 0 0 0 3 3 0 1 0
PTS 0 18 12 7 14 3 5 3
14
6
7
62
13
8
Halftime-DU 28-27; FG pct. - PITT .349, DU .323. 3-pt. FG pct. - PITT .250, DU .286; FT pct. - PITT .696, DU .647.
PITT (63) Player Wilson-C Zellous-G Sallard-F Scott-F Stewart-G Harrison Cole Popovec Team Totals
Min. 24 39 29 39 38 14 10 7 200
FG- 3FG- FTFGA FGA FTA RB 7-8 0-0 2-4 3 6-17 0-2 12-15 4 1-3 0-0 0-0 5 4-11 3-7 0-2 3 1-6 1-3 4-4 3 1-8 1-7 0-0 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 2 6 20-54 5-19 18-25 28
PF 3 2 4 1 3 0 2 1 16
A TO BLK 1 1 1 1 5 0 2 4 0 2 1 0 5 4 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
S 2 0 1 1 4 1 0 0
PTS 16 24 2 11 7 2 0 0
1
9
63
A TO BLK 0 0 1 1 4 1 2 6 1 0 1 0 6 5 1 0 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
S 0 5 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 0
PTS 0 11 31 2 5 3 0 0 9 8
4 10
69
13
Player Rucker-F Bingham-F McCoughtry-F Stephen-G Byrd-G Burke Howard Jackson Reid Hines Team Totals
Min. 5 39 39 12 38 25 1 3 15 23
FGFGA 0-0 4-11 13-19 1-1 1-4 1-3 0-0 0-0 3-7 2-6
3FGFGA 0-0 1-2 0-2 0-0 0-0 1-3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0
200
25-51 2-7
FTFTA RB 0-0 0 2-4 8 5-6 14 0-0 0 3-4 1 0-0 1 0-0 0 0-0 0 3-3 4 4-6 7 3 17-23 38
PF 3 1 3 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 19
10
92
■
2009 -10 Pitt Women’s Basketball
21
A - 8,957; Officials - Mark Zentz, Angie Lewis, Joanne Aldrich Halftime-UL 41-31; FG pct. - PITT .370, UL .490. 3-pt. FG pct. - PITT .260, UL .286; FT pct. - PITT .720, UL .739. A - 9,588; Officials - Dennis DeMayo, Barb Smith, Bonita Spence
A - 3,386; Officials - Bruce Morris, Sue Blauch, Kathy Ridilla
16
LOUISVILLE (69)