Strong First Half Not Enough As Panthers Fall At UCF In Season Opener

Wednesday, November 6

Orlando, FL

11:00 AM

Pitt

0-1,0-0ACC

University of Central Florida

1-0,0-0AAC

Pittsburgh

UCF

Photo by: Justin Aller/Pitt Athletics

Strong First Half Not Enough As Panthers Fall At UCF In Season Opener

11/6/2019 5:01:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

ORLANDO, FL - The University of Pittsburgh women's basketball team (0-1, 0-0 ACC) opened up their 2019-20 campaign on Wednesday afternoon with a 74-58 road loss against a very strong UCF team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament a season ago. The Knights outscored Pitt 44-25 in the second half as they shot 52% from the floor across the final 20 minutes of action.

"Obviously I am disappointed that we didn't come away with the win today," said second-year head coach Lance White. "But on the other hand, I was really pleased with our growth. Having inexperienced players in so many positions, I thought our team had to grow up quickly against a very good UCF team today. We will get better every day as we learn that college basketball is all about possessions and mental toughness."

In her first game in a Pitt jersey, junior Gabbie Green led the Panthers in scoring on Wednesday as she netted 18 points, four steals and three rebounds on 7-for-14 from the floor and 4-for-7 from behind the arc. Aysia Bugg made her return to the court for Pitt and netted 17 points, four assists and three rebounds across a team-high 39 minutes of action. Sophomore Ismini Prapa came off the bench and scored a career-high eight points, knocking down a pair of triples on 3-for-4 shooting.

After a layup from the Knights opened the scoring, the Panthers responded quickly with an 8-0 spurt as Aysia Bugg drained a triple and a pull up jumper and Gabbie Green nailed a transition triple to force UCF to call a timeout. The Panthers ended the quarter with a pair of triples by Ismini Prapa and Green and a jumper by Bugg to take the 20-11 lead into the second quarter.

UCF was able to get back into the game early on in the second quarter as they cut the Pitt lead down to 23-20 to force Pitt to take their first timeout of the game. The Panthers responded out of the timeout with a Bugg jumper and an Emy Hayford layup to regain the 27-20 advantage midway through the second quarter. After another run by the Knights, Bugg stepped up with back-to-back triples in front of the UCF bench to send Pitt to the halftime break with the 33-30 lead behind 15 first half points from the sixth year team captain.

Pitt opened up the third quarter with a triple from Green before the Knights used a 12-0 to take over the lead, 42-37, and forced the Panthers to take an early timeout. Pitt fought back after the timeout as Prapa made a layup and a corner three-pointer and Green notched a steal and layup to cut the UCF lead to 47-46 with just over a minute to play in the quarter. The Knights, however, responded with a 7-0 run to end the quarter and take the 54-46 lead into the final frame.

Green's fourth triple of the game cut the Pitt deficit to seven, 56-49, but the Panthers weren't able to get any closer down the stretch of the game as they shot just 26% in the fourth.

For the game, UCF shot 45.6% while the Panthers offense shot 42.3% from the field in the loss. The Knights held the 33-23 edge in rebounding and the 24-16 edge in paint scoring. Both teams turned the ball over 19 times while the Panthers finished off the loss with 11 steals.

"I am really excited about this team and I thought Aysia Bugg was outstanding today for us," said White. "We all are so glad she's back."

Hayford finished off her first career game with five points and two assists across 22 minutes off the bench while Cara Judkins grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and added four points in 31 minutes of work.

UCF had four players in double figures on Wednesday led by Kay Kay Wright who came off the bench and scored 16 points, four assists and three rebounds in the win. Masseny Kaba finished off her strong game with 14 points and nine rebounds.

UP NEXT

Pitt returns home for their next four games starting on Monday, November 11 as they welcome Central Connecticut State to the Petersen Events Center for a 7:00 pm tip.
The Panthers will then welcome Georgetown, Fairleigh Dickinson and Duquesne for non-conference tilts over the next week and a half.

PITT NOTES
Team

With the loss, Pitt falls to 0-2 all-time against UCF and 31-15 all-time in season openers.
Pitt forced 19 UCF turnovers and notched 11 steals as six players recorded at least one steal in the loss.
The Panthers shot 50% (10-for-20) from the three-point line in the loss including 70% (7-for-10) from behind the arc in the first half.
The Pitt starting lineup featured three newcomers, Harris, Green and Brown.
Four players scored their first career points for Pitt on Wednesday, Green (18), Emy Hayford (5), Harris (3) and Brown (3).

Aysia Bugg

Bugg finished off her first game since missing the final 26 games of last season with 17 points, four assists and three rebounds while connecting on three triples.
She finished the game going 7-for-16 from the floor and 3-for-8 from deep as she now has 29 career games with 10+ points in a Pitt jersey.
Bugg finished the game with a team-high four assists and has now led the team in assists in 41 career games.
She logged a game-high 38 minutes, playing in 30+ minutes for the 44^th time in her career.
The graduate student is just 270 points shy of becoming the 20^th 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 as she has 312 career helpers.

Gabbie Green

The JUCO transfer had quite the debut for Pitt as she led the team with 18 points, four steals and three rebounds while connecting on four triples in the loss.
Green finished off her contest going 7-for-14 from the floor and 4-for-7 from behind the arc across 21 minutes of work.
Her four steals were a game-high.

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