Big East Women’s Basketball Tournament: First Round

By Ann K. Miller: SPM CT Writer
Posted Saturday, March 8, 2008

HARTFORD, CT. - The Pittsburgh Panthers and Villanova Wildcats kicked off the Women’s Basketball Big East Tournament at Hartford’s XL Center today. The Panthers emerged victorious, besting the Wildcats 69-63.

Ranked fifth, the Panthers brought a 20-9 and 10-6 Big East record into today’s game, while the Wildcats -- who are in a rebuilding season -- came in with a 15-14, 5-11 Big East record which put them in the final #12 spot.

Coach Agnus Berenato’s Panther team approach on handling the Nova team -- whose deliberate, slow-down style of play can aggravate even the best of teams -- was to deny the three-point shot, for which Nova is famous. As Berenato pointed out after the game, Nova averages 10 made 3s per game.

“If you let them get a six-point lead, it’s really hard to catch up with them,” she said. “Then they make you play like a chicken with its head cut off.”

The Panthers' plan was simple. Give up the two-point shot; don’t allow any threes. They did hold the Wildcats to only two 3-pointers for the entire game. They also took good care of the basketball, with only five turnovers in the game -- none in the first half.

Pitt had a bit of a scoring slump in the second half and Nova began to capitalize. At the 3:06 mark they were able to pull within four points at 57-53, but it was too little, too late.

Coach Harry Perretta was proud of his Villanova team after the game. “They are a young team, they tend to panic a lot and we’re trying to get them not to panic. In the second half, they didn’t panic, they stayed with it and we were able to get back into the game.”

Villanova center Lisa Karcic’s right knee buckled as she was going up for a shot at the 37.7 mark and she finished the game watching from the bench. It was unknown at the end of the game what type of injury she had suffered.

After the game, Pitt’s entire team and coaching staff went over to greet the injured Karcic and to wish her well. “I really feel bad about Lisa Karcic because we’ve been through that ... it’s really unfortunate when somebody has a leg injury and it really hits home with us because we’ve had two leg injuries.”

Senior center Marcedes Walker, who missed several games with a sprained ankle earlier in the season, led the Panthers with 20 points and seven rebounds. Xenia Stewart had 18 points for Pitt.

Laura Kurz, Nova’s 6-2 center, led all scorers with 23 and also had seven rebounds.

Pitt will play #4 Notre Dame at noon on Sunday. The last time the two teams met, Pitt was humbled on Notre Dame’s court -- 81-66 -- in a nationally televised game. Tomorrow’s matchup will also be aired around the country on ESPNU.

Game Two: DePaul vs. Marquette

Matchups between the #8 and #9 teams in a 12-team tournament are, by design, close contests. Add to the equation the fact that the two teams playing have a storied rivalry and you have the makings of a great game.

That is exactly what the contest between #8 Marquette and #9 DePaul provided for the fans in the second game of the tournament.

“This is my 12th year of coaching,” Marquette coach Terry Mitchell said, “and one of the best games that I’ve been associated with is Marquette-DePaul. It’s traditional on the men’s side, it’s traditional on the women’s side. It doesn’t matter what kind of season you’re having, when the ball goes up between these two teams, it’s going to be physical. Everyone is friends in the end, but when the ball goes up, we are going to battle each other.”

BIG EAST first team member, senior guard Allie Quigley sat for all but six minutes of the first half, saddled with three fouls. Despite that, she led all scorers for the half with 11 points on 4-6 from the field and 3-3 from the free-throw line.

DePaul was behind 32-30 with six seconds on the clock in the first half when freshman center Felicia Chester hauled in the rebound of a Marquette missed 3-pointer and went the length of the court to lay it in with one second on the clock.

In the second half, DePaul dedicated itself to defense and Quigley was back on the floor. That was the difference in the game as she lit up Marquette for 27 points for the game - including two 3-pointers that broke Marquette’s back. DePaul pulled the “upset” beating the higher seed, 73-69.

Coach Doug Bruno praised Quigley after the game, calling her a “special senior, a big-time shot executor, a player who is a natural, underrated, talented senior.”

Also cited by Bruno for her contributions was sophomore guard Deidre Naughton, who had 14 points including going 3-4 from three-point range in the second half.

Junior guard Krystal Ellis was outstanding for Marquette, leading the team with 15 points. She was joined by freshman guard Angel Robinson with 14 . Jocelyn Mellen, Marquette’s redshirt freshman forward, led all players with 10 rebounds.

Coach Terry Mitchell was proud of her young team after the game. “We were patient, we went into the paint much better. I think it was like our whole season. We had great moments, then we were down. But every game we fight and every game we make it interesting.”

Next up for DePaul is a rematch with top-ranked Connecticut, who barely survived their last meeting. DePaul blew 17-point lead in the second half of that game, played a week ago on their home court. UConn ended up winning on a steal from BIGEAST Player and Freshman of the Year Maya Moore, whose timeout call with just seven seconds on the clock allowed for the last-second drive to the hoop from BIGEAST Sixth Woman of the Year Ketia Swanier. The Huskies won 77-76.

Asked about the UConn game, Quigley said, “I think we definitely put ourselves into position to get a win and down the stretch we didn’t make the smartest plays ... Coach always says that every game has a life of its own so we know that’s going to happen tomorrow. We just have to bring all the mental and physical toughness tomorrow and put ourselves in position to do the same thing.”

The DePaul-Connecticut game will start at approximately 2pm Sunday and will be broadcast on ESPNU.

Game three: Louisville vs St. John’s

Next up was #7 Louisville vs #10 St. John’s. Louisville came into the tourney with a 21-8 (10-6 BIG EAST) record, while St. John’s had a 16-13 overall record, 7-9 in league play.

With three of its starters on the bench with fouls, including All BIGEAST first-team selection Angel McCoughtry, Louisville’s bench managed to squeak out a narrow lead at the half - 23-21, despite turning the ball over 11 times in the first period.

Louisville got into the flow offensively in the second. They were more patient on offense and managed to pull farther ahead despite the fact that McCoughtry got into early foul trouble and had to sit once again, watching nervously from the sidelines.

At the 8:50 mark McCoughtry re-entered the game and took over.

Less than 30 seconds later she got her first field goal of the half and then proceeded to pour in nine unanswered points, giving the Cardinals the lead for good.

McCoughtry led all players with 25 points -- in just 21 minutes of play. She also had three steals going down the stretch, each resulting in Louisville points.

Junior guard Monique McLean led St. John’s with 16 points.

A telling statistic for the Red Storm was their woeful assist total offour for the game. Louisville had 12 steals for the game and converted 17 points off turnovers.

Coach Jeff Walz was pleased with his team’s defensive effort.

“We played probably the best two halves of defense that we’ve played all year,” he said, “but at the same time, if we come and play a first half tomorrow night like we did tonight - it could be ugly early.”

Louisville will face Rutgers in the first evening game tomorrow. Tip-off is scheduled for 6pm and the game will air on ESPNU.

Jeff Walz, Louisville’s coach, has nothing but respect for Rutgers and knows that his team has a tough challenge ahead.

“They’re a team of about six or seven high school all-Americans ... they’re a special team. They blend extremely well. They’ve got scorers at all five positions. We’re going to have to come out and play a very smart game, we’re going to have to take care of the basketball, and we’re not going to be able to turn the ball over 18 times tomorrow. They take advantage of your mistakes as well as any team we play. At the same time I thought we played very well at their place, it was a six- or seven-point game with four minutes left -- and we’re a shot away from making it a very close game.”

Game Four: Syracuse vs. South Florida

The last matchup of the day had #6 Syracuse (22-7 10-6 BIG EAST) going against #11 South Florida (15-14 5-11 BIG EAST). These teams had met each other once in the regular season, with Syracuse winning by seven, 67-60, on January 12.

Syracuse got balanced scoring in the first half with six players contributing. Their senior forward, Fantasia Goodwin, hauled in 11 rebounds -- five of them offensive. Syracuse capitalized on second-chance points in the half, scoring 12 points on put-backs. They also hit a perfect 9-9 from the free-throw line and led 33-23 at the half.

But In the second half things got interesting.

South Florida fell behind by 14 points, but battled back to take the lead, 63-60, on a 3-pointer from Shantia Grace with only 1:43 left in regulation.

Then freshman guard Erica Morrow hit a 3-pointer of her own with .06 seconds on the clock, helping the Orange to survive as she tied the game 63-63. Daiane Packer missed a tough 3-pointer for South Florida at the buzzer and the game went into overtime.

Morrow had four points for Syracuse in the extra session, but it was the Bulls' center, junior Jessica Lawson, who stepped up in overtime. She scored twice and pulled down three offensive rebounds for South Florida.

With USF ahead by one point and .05 left in overtime, BIGEAST Co-Coach of the Year Quentin Hillsman called a 20-second timeout to draw up a play for his Syracuse squad. Chandrea Jones, a junior guard, missed a 3-point attempt and South Florida joyously celebrated its unlikely 68-67 upset.

Syracuse was the highest seed to fall in the tournament thus far.

South Florida will face #3 West Virginia at approximately 8pm Sunday. They last played each other on January 5th in a close contest that South Florida lost 79-73. West Virginia will prove a much tougher opponent than Syracuse. Whether or not USF can pull off an even bigger upset remains to be seen.