Panthers Head To Louisville To Battle #5 Cardinals On Sunday Afternoon

PITTSBURGH – The Pitt women's basketball team will hit the road on Sunday afternoon for a big test as they travel to Louisville to take on the #5 Cardinals at 4:00 pm inside the KFC YUM! Center. The Panthers are in search of their first victory over a top-5 team in the country in program history on Sunday.

HOW TO FOLLOW

Sunday's game in Louisville will air live on the ACC Network as Jenn Hildreth (play-by-play) and LaChine Robinson (analyst) will be on the call. The game can also be streamed online by clicking HERE.
Fans can also listen to the game on the radio by tuning into 1320 AM WJAS. The voice of the Pitt women's basketball team, Josh Rowntree, will get you started with the pregame show at 3:45 pm followed by the call of the game at 4:00 pm. Listen to the call HERE.
Live stats for 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.

THE SERIES

This meeting marks the 21^st game of all-time between the two programs with the Cardinals holding the 18-2 record in the previous 20.
The Cardinals have won 14 straight in the series including a pair of victories last season. At Louisville a season ago, Pitt fell by a score of 70-42.
Pitt is 0-9 all-time against the Cardinals in Louisville.
The Panthers last victory in the series came on Feb. 14, 2010 when they downed the Cardinals 72-69 in Pittsburgh.

SCOUTING THE CARDINALS

The Louisville Cardinals enter Sunday afternoon's game with a 19-1 overall record and sit atop the ACC with an unblemished 8-0 mark. The Cardinals have won their last 11 games overall.
Leading the way offensively for Louisville is junior Dana Evans who is averaging 19.2 points, a team-high 4.3 assists and 2.8 rebounds while hitting 61 three-pointers and shooting 44.5% from behind the arc.
Jazmine Jones is enjoying a good senior campaign as she is averaging 14.4 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists while Kylee Shook is averaging 9.1 points, a team-high 7.6 rebounds and an ACC leading 2.5 blocks.
As a team, the Cardinals are averaging 74.8 points/game while holding opponents to just 58.3 points/game. Louisville is also shooting 45.7% from the floor and grabbing an average of 40.5 rebounds/game.

STORYLINES

One of the major points of emphasis for Pitt coming into the season was improving on their rebounding and through 18 games the Panthers have done a great job. So far this season, Pitt is averaging 41.6 rpg, a +6.1 rebound margin from a season ago. The +6.1 margin marks the biggest improvement in the ACC this season.
The new-look Pitt lineup has been relying heavily on the production of newcomers as the six newcomers have combined to average 40.5 points and 27.1 rebounds per game. They are accounting for 66.9% of the Pitt scoring this season.

THE OPENING TIP

The Panthers head to the road for their first game against a top-5 team this season as they play at #5 Louisville Sunday at 4pm.
Pitt is being led offensively by Aysia Bugg who is averaging 13.0 points while connecting on a team-high 40 three-pointers.
Freshman forward Amber Brown is excelling for the Panthers as she is averaging 9.9 points and a team-high 8.6 rebounds. She has recorded five double-doubles and nine games with 10+ rebounds this season.
Point guard Dayshanette Harris is continuing to make strides for Pitt as she is aver- aging 9.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists and a team-best 1.8 steals.

NEWCOMERS MAKING AN IMPACT

Entering the 2019-20 campaign, the Panthers knew they were going to have to rely heavily on a handful of newcomers to make an impact and they have done a nice job so far this season.
The six newcomers for the Pitt are averaging a combined 40.5 points and 27.1 rebounds per game so far this season.
The newcomers are accounting for 66.9% of the Panthers scoring efforts this season and 65.2% of the rebounding efforts.
The freshman duo of Dayshanette Harris and Amber Brown have combined to score 19.5 points per game, the second best freshman duo in the ACC behind Notre Dame's duo of Sam Brunelle and Anaya Peoples (26.3 ppg).
The freshman duo of Brown and Rita Igbokwe are currently lead all ACC freshman duos in combined rebounds (15.5 rpg). The duo is currently tied for second in the NCAA for freshman duos combined rebounds/game. The Panthers duo is tied with a duo from South Carolina and trail only a duo from UC Santa Barbara (16.1 rpg).
Brown and Igbokwe are currently the only duo of freshman teammates in the NCAA averaging at least 6.5 rpg each.

BUGG FROM DOWNTOWN

Aysia Bugg has revamped her game this season to focus more on the three-point shot and it has paid off for the sixth-year guard.
So far this season, Bugg has connected on a career-high 40 triples and is moving up the career three-point charts, currently sitting in 11th place on the all-time charts.
Last time out, Bugg netted two three-pointers to become just the 11th Pitt player in program history to record 100 career three's.
Bugg is just two triples behind 10th place on the all-time list. Bugg's former teammate Cassidy Walsh who graduated last season currently sits in 10th place.

100+ Career Three-Pointers Made
#     Name                      Years            3's
1.    Erin Maloy              1990-94       166
2.    Taneisha Harrison 2007-11       150
3.    Fred Potvin            2013-16       126
4.    Brianna Kiesel       2011-15       123
5.    Mallorie Winn       2005-08       119
6.    Shayla Scott           2007-11       118
7.    Monique Toney    1997-01       117
8.    Haley Harguth       2001-03       114
9.    Alecia Balic            1995-99       113
10. Cassidy Walsh       2015-19       101
11. Aysia Bugg             2014-Pres.   100

NEXT UP

Pitt will return home for their next two games as they welcome Wake Forest to the Pete on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 7:00 pm.
The Panthers will then play host to Florida State on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 5:00 pm in their 13^th annual Pink The Petersen Game to raise awareness for breast cancer and raise funds for breast cancer research.

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