In a clinic second half, Nova dissected the Pitt defense, ramped up their own defense and stifled Pitt with a 35-21 second half smackdown after leading by only 2 at the half. Sweeney won raves on the internet broadcast and rightfully so - 18 points on 7 of 13, with 10 rebound, 4 assists, 5 steals and 4 blocks. Rachel Roberts added 14 on 5 of 9 including 3 of 6 on threes and added 7 assists, Caroline Coyer kept us in the lead by nailing 3 threes in the first half to finish with nine and Taylor Holeman followed up her 7 for 7 night against DePaul with a 4 of 5 effort for 8 points.
Game totals - 27 of 58, with 9 of 27 on threes, 29 boards vs 31 for Pitt, only 7 turnovers, 24 assists on 27 baskets, 8 steals and five blocks. Points in the paint were 32 of which probably 26 were layups. The offense ran to perfection in both halfs, but the threes weren't falling in the first half, even after Pitt switched out to a zone to try to stop us from scoring inside. The threes started to fall in the second half, ending a six game dismal stretch where we couldn't score the long ball.
After giving up the opening score, Nova ran out 11 straight points causing an early Pitt time out even before the Nova second team took the court. Pitt then regrouped to score 9 of the next 11 points to close to 13-11 with their run interuppted by a pretty break out play from Coyer to Kane in the corner to Leer down the lane for a layup. A Roberts three pushed a Nova lead out to 25-19 before Pitt ran off 8 straight to take the lead again at 27-25. A short shot by Holeman ended the run and two Coyer threes helped Nova stay ahead at the break at 33-31.
The clinic started right off of the opening whistle for the second half - Sweeney layup, followed by Sweeney short jumper in the lane and a Roberts 3 pushed the lead back up to 40-31 with 17:40 remaining in the game. Pitt once again got some offense going and closed to 45-41 with about 14 minutes to go and the announcers were impressed by the way Pitt was scoring against the Nova team that was only giving up 48 a game. From that point on, Pitt would only put 11 more on the board, with a Megan Pearson three, Sweeney on a cutter, a Sweeney drive and a Roberts 3 ball blowing the game open at 55-41 with 10:32 to go. The lead got up to as much as 19 with layup after layup each trip down the floor, followed by a Burford three from deep in the corner. Sweeney got her double double with her 10th rebound at the 6:45 mark.
The team is off to a 3-0 start in the Big East for the first time since the magical 2002-2003 elite 8 year, with only Syracuse, Notre Dame and St. John's undefeated at 2-0. The LadyCats go for the outright Big Five title at Penn on Wednseday night at the Palestra and return home on Saturday to face our nemesis in South Florida. Make it out to Penn if you can, but certainly plan to be on hand on Saturday to see us get our first ever win over the Bulls (lady Bulls?, Bull-ettes?). If you missed the game on the internet, Comcast Sportsnet has it on tape delay at 11 p.m. tonight (Saturday).
WIll post up links later to any interesting stories or photos that I can find.
Go Nova!
Link added 1-13-12 to Mel Greenberg's game story.
This post was edited on 1/13 9:25 AM by tpenter
Use this link to get a few game photos from Pitt website - http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/view.gal?id=132890
This post was edited on 1/13 9:32 AM by tpenter
Greenberg game write-up
Game totals - 27 of 58, with 9 of 27 on threes, 29 boards vs 31 for Pitt, only 7 turnovers, 24 assists on 27 baskets, 8 steals and five blocks. Points in the paint were 32 of which probably 26 were layups. The offense ran to perfection in both halfs, but the threes weren't falling in the first half, even after Pitt switched out to a zone to try to stop us from scoring inside. The threes started to fall in the second half, ending a six game dismal stretch where we couldn't score the long ball.
After giving up the opening score, Nova ran out 11 straight points causing an early Pitt time out even before the Nova second team took the court. Pitt then regrouped to score 9 of the next 11 points to close to 13-11 with their run interuppted by a pretty break out play from Coyer to Kane in the corner to Leer down the lane for a layup. A Roberts three pushed a Nova lead out to 25-19 before Pitt ran off 8 straight to take the lead again at 27-25. A short shot by Holeman ended the run and two Coyer threes helped Nova stay ahead at the break at 33-31.
The clinic started right off of the opening whistle for the second half - Sweeney layup, followed by Sweeney short jumper in the lane and a Roberts 3 pushed the lead back up to 40-31 with 17:40 remaining in the game. Pitt once again got some offense going and closed to 45-41 with about 14 minutes to go and the announcers were impressed by the way Pitt was scoring against the Nova team that was only giving up 48 a game. From that point on, Pitt would only put 11 more on the board, with a Megan Pearson three, Sweeney on a cutter, a Sweeney drive and a Roberts 3 ball blowing the game open at 55-41 with 10:32 to go. The lead got up to as much as 19 with layup after layup each trip down the floor, followed by a Burford three from deep in the corner. Sweeney got her double double with her 10th rebound at the 6:45 mark.
The team is off to a 3-0 start in the Big East for the first time since the magical 2002-2003 elite 8 year, with only Syracuse, Notre Dame and St. John's undefeated at 2-0. The LadyCats go for the outright Big Five title at Penn on Wednseday night at the Palestra and return home on Saturday to face our nemesis in South Florida. Make it out to Penn if you can, but certainly plan to be on hand on Saturday to see us get our first ever win over the Bulls (lady Bulls?, Bull-ettes?). If you missed the game on the internet, Comcast Sportsnet has it on tape delay at 11 p.m. tonight (Saturday).
WIll post up links later to any interesting stories or photos that I can find.
Go Nova!
Link added 1-13-12 to Mel Greenberg's game story.
This post was edited on 1/13 9:25 AM by tpenter
Use this link to get a few game photos from Pitt website - http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/view.gal?id=132890
This post was edited on 1/13 9:32 AM by tpenter
Greenberg game write-up