Pitt women’s basketball had no trouble in its exhibition match against branch campus foe Pitt-Johnstown, defeating the Mountain Cats 101-46.
Look out for Nylah Wilson
First-year guard Nylah Wilson stood out in her first game at Pitt. She put up 15 points, the second-most points scored by one player in the game — the most was 17 by junior guard Carla Viegas. Wilson was all in during her time on the court and had great strategy, including her fast breaks, as she had five turnovers.
One of her most valuable skills on the court was her layups, especially on fast breaks. Multiple times, she sprinted right past Pitt-Johnstown’s defense and converted a successful layup. When there was good communication between her and the rest of the team, the Panthers played turnover-free basketball.
Efficient and quick scoring
The Panthers put up 101 points against Pitt-Johnstown. Pitt took advantage of Pitt-Johnstown’s weaknesses within their defense and used them as opportunities to score. Their offense was on point during this game — clear communication and strong passing gave Pitt those openings to score. Many fouls from Pitt-Johnstown also allowed the Panthers to get some free points from the free-throw line.
Another reason the Panthers had such an outstanding scoring game was rebounding, as they scored 23 second-chance points against the Mountain Cats.
Be careful — Pitt’s racking up fouls
Despite dominating the majority of the game against Pitt-Johnstown and maintaining aggressiveness throughout the game, there were times when it was overdone.
Near the end of the game, Pitt-Johnstown was starting to ramp up a bit on the offensive side. The Panthers seemed to have shifted to heavy man-to-man defense because they would have three women covering any member of the other team that had possession of the ball. This cost Pitt a few times when there was not enough defensive play on other members of the team. Aggressive defensive play also incurred fouls for the Panthers.
The Panthers had a total of 23 fouls in the game, including nine fouls in the third quarter. The high amount of fouls hurt the Panthers as it allowed Pitt-Johnstown to rack up a good amount of their points from the charity stripe.
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