Panthers Welcome Central Connecticut State For Home Opener On Monday Night

PITTSBURGH - The University of Pittsburgh women's basketball team (0-1, 0-0 ACC) will welcome the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils for their home opener at the Petersen Events Center on Monday night at 7:00 pm. The Panthers will be looking to win their fourth home opener in the last five seasons as the Blue Devils come to town.

HOW TO FOLLOW

Monday night's game will air on the ACC Network Extra by clicking HERE.
You can also listen to the game on 107 radio as the voice of Pitt women's basketball, Josh Rowntree, will have the call from courtside.
Live stats of the game can be found by clicking HERE.
Live updates throughout the game will also be posted on Twitter by following the Pitt women's basketball account @Pitt_WBB.

STORYLINES

The 2019-20 version of the Pitt Panthers features five returning players and seven newcomers. The newcomers are comprised of two transfers and five freshmen student-athletes.
Graduate student Aysia Bugg will return to the Panthers lineup this season for her sixth season after sustaining blood clots last season that forced her to miss the final 26 games. Bugg netted 17 points and four assists in the season opener at UCF on Wednesday afternoon.
The new-look Panthers opened up the 2019-20 campaign on Wednesday afternoon at UCF with an up-tempo offensive attack and an aggressive defensive strategy.
Making her first career appearance for the Panthers, junior college transfer Gabbie Green had an impressive game for Pitt as she led the squad with 18 points, four steals and three rebounds while connecting on four triples. Green showed off her speed and shooting touch in the road loss.

SCOUTING THE BLUE DEVILS

The Central Connecticut State Blue Devils opened up their 2019-20 on the road on Tuesday night with a 61- 56 road loss at Buffalo.
The Blue Devils were held to just 27.4% shooting on Tuesday while also turning the ball over 20 times.
Central Connecticut State played 12 players in the season opener and put out a starting lineup that consisted of three juniors, a senior and a sophomore.
Junior guard Emma McCamus led the Blue Devils offensive efforts against the Bulls as she netted a team-high 13 points, three steals and two rebounds while senior forward Ashley Chin netted 11 points and a team-high eUCF returns just two of their top five scorers from a season ago.

LAST TIME OUT

Pitt opened up their 2019-20 campaign on Wednesday afternoon at UCF for their annual Education Game down in Orlando.
The Panthers came out strong in the opening 20 minutes as they earned their biggest lead of the game (13) in the first quarter before entering half with the 33- 30 advantage.
The second half wasn't as friendly to the Panthers as UCF outscored them 44-25 to take the 74-58 opening day victory.
Gabbie Green led all Pitt players with 18 points while Aysia Bugg chipped in with 17 in the loss.

HOME OPENER SUCCESS

Entering Monday night's home opener against Central Connecticut State, the Panthers currently own a 30-15 record in regular season home openers.
Pitt has won three of their last four home openers with the lone loss coming to UCF last season in Pittsburgh.
Since joining the ACC in 2013-14, the Panthers own a 4-2 mark in home openers, outscoring their opponents by an average of 10.8 ppg.

NON-CONFERENCE DOMINATION

The Panthers have been dominant in the non-conference portion of their schedule as they have posted 15 straight winning seasons.
Pitt has recorded at least eight nonconference victories in each season since 2003-04 when they had a losing record of 4-6.
Over the past five seasons, Pitt owns a 45-22 (.672) record against nonconference opponents.
Since joining the ACC, Pitt owns a 37-13 (.740) record against non-conference opponents inside the Petersen Events Center.

GREEN DAY

Drawing the start in her first career game in a Pitt jersey in the Panthers season opener at UCF on Wednesday, junior college transfer Gabbie Green didn't disappoint.
The speedy guard was impressive on Wednesday as she exploded for a team-high 18 points, four steals and three rebounds while going 4-for-7 from behind the arc.
Green tied the program record for points scored (18) in a Pitt debut since the Panthers joined the ACC in 2013-14. She tied the mark set by Danielle Garven in her first game for Pitt in 2017.
Green comes to Pitt after two successful seasons at South Plains College in Texas where she earned First Team All-America honors as a sophomore last season after averaging 14.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists.

BUGGIN' OUT

After receiving a waiver for her sixth season of eligibility in the summer, graduate student Aysia Bugg returned to the Panthers starting lineup on Wednesday after missing most of the past two seasons.
In her first game in nearly a year, Bugg looked to be in midseason form for the Panthers as she netted 17 points (15 in the first half) and four assists while connecting on three triples across 38 minutes of action.
The team captain enters this season as the lone player in the ACC to have 700+ points, 300+ assists and 200+ rebounds in her career.
Bugg missed all of the 2017-18 campaign due to a torn ACL and after a strong start to her 2018-19 campaign, she missed the final 26 games after suffering from blood clots. Prior to her blood clot diagnosis, Bugg was averaging a team-high 14.0 points, 3.4 assists and 2.4 rebounds across 29.6 minutes/game.
Bugg is just 270 points shy 1,000 for her career as she would become the 20th member of the Panthers 1,000 point club. She is also just 28 assists away from 10th place on the Panthers all-time assists charts.
The sixth year captain is the oldest active player in the ACC, just six days older than former teammate and current Louisville Cardinal, Yacine Diop.

NEXT UP

The Panthers will play their next three at the Petersen Events Center, starting on Saturday, Nov. 16 as they welcome Georgetown to Pittsburgh for a 2pm game.
Pitt will then host their annual school day game on Tuesday, Nov. 19 as they welcome Fairleigh Dickinson.

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