The Pitt women’s 64-50 loss to Virginia on Wednesday in the first round of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C., was mainly a matter of the Cavaliers’ playing stingy defense against the Panthers.
Center Khadija Faye, named to the All-ACC first team earlier in the week, missed 16 of 19 shots and scored 15 points — nine from the free-throw line. Plus, Mikayla Johnson, the Panthers’ second-leading scorer, was limited by foot and hand injuries to nine minutes.
Faye didn’t score from the field until the third quarter after coming into the game with an average of 19.2 points (third in the ACC). Still, she ended up with 10 rebounds to record her ACC-high 17th double-double of the season.
Overall, Pitt shot only 23.3% from the field (14 of 60). Virginia blocked 11 shots.
MaKayla Elmore added 11 points, and Marley Washenitz 10 for Pitt.
Virginia, the No. 10 seed, improved to 17-14 while leading for most of the first half and throughout the remainder of the game. The Cavaliers advanced to the second round Thursday against No. 7 California.
No. 15 Pitt (13-19) has not won a game in the ACC Tournament since 2020. Yet, the Panthers showed improvement this season under second-year coach Tory Verdi, recording their second-most all-time victories in ACC play (five).
Pitt opened the game by taking a 12-5 lead, but its good fortune did not last. From there, the Panthers were scoreless for 7 minutes, 42 seconds in a time frame spanning the first and second quarters.
Meanwhile, Virginia went on a 19-0 run to build a 24-12 advantage that Pitt whittled to 26-22 at intermission.
Elmore hit 3 3-pointers and Audrey Gibbs three foul shots to give Pitt its lead. But Faye missed all seven of her shot attempts in the first half.
Washenitz was the only other Pitt player to score in the first half while the Panthers shot 20% (6 of 30) from the field.
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