Pitt Earns Season Sweep Of Clemson With 79-69 Road Win Tuesday

Tuesday, January 26

Clemson, SC

7:00 PM

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Clemson University

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Clemson

Pitt Earns Season Sweep Of Clemson With 79-69 Road Win Tuesday

1/26/2021 10:34:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Season Stats ACC Only Stats Press Conference Highlights

CLEMSON, SC – For the first time since joining the ACC in 2013-14, the Pitt women's basketball team (4-4, 2-3 ACC) swept a conference opponent in the regular season as they ran past the Clemson Tigers on Tuesday night on the road, 79-69. The Panthers forced 22 turnovers and the bench supplied 39 points in Pitt's second ACC victory of the season.

"We've been talking so much about learning how to win, and we've been so close," said head coach Lance White. "Winning in the ACC is hard. Tonight I thought we took a huge step in our maturity and composure and executed the game plan and to see them get rewarded for that is huge."

The Pitt bench was the difference on Tuesday as the reserves netted a season-high 39 points thanks to a pair of newcomers in Liatu King and Destiny Strother. King finished off her monster game with a career-high 15 points and eight rebounds while Strother netted a career-high 15 points and three rebounds while going 6-for-8 from the floor in the win.

The Panthers got out to a quick start offensively once again on Tuesday as Gabbie Green opened the scoring with a triple and Liatu King came off the bench and netted six straight points. Pitt earned the 12-8 lead after a Destiny Strother triple at the first media timeout. The Tigers came back and took a 16-14 lead late in the first but Jayla Everett connected on her first triple and King made a layup to send Pitt to the second quarter with the 19-17 lead.

Clemson came out strong in the second quarter as they took the 24-20 lead before Dayshanette Harris split a pair of defenders and made her first bucket of the game to cut the Tigers lead to two, 24-22, with just over six minutes left in the half. After the media timeout, Everett got it going for the Panthers as she knocked down back-to-back triples to give Pitt the 30-29 lead. King finished off her impressive first half with another layup after an offensive rebound to send the game to halftime with Pitt leading 38-33.

Harris began to get it going in the third quarter as she netted six early points to extend the Pitt lead to 50-43 at the media timeout. After the Tigers responded with a three out of a timeout, Green sank her second three of the game to give Pitt the seven point lead, 53-46. Clemson wouldn't get any closer down the stretch of the third as Igbokwe finished off a layup to send Pitt to the final quarter with the 58-51 lead.

Clemson opened up the fourth with a triple and after a pair of free throws they cut the Pitt lead to three, 59-56, but the youthful Panthers didn't flinch. Amber Brown finished off a fast break layup after a great feed from Everett to push the Pitt lead back to seven and the Panthers never looked back as they notched their first ACC road win of the season, 79-69, after knocking down some late free throws.

Everett was one of four Panthers in double figures as she finished with 13 points, two assists and two steals while connecting on three triples. The junior became the first player in program history to net at least two threes in each of the first eight games of the season. Harris finished off her night with 10 points, six assists, two steals and two rebounds while Igbokwe chipped in with nine points and five rebounds and Emy Hayford had five points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals off the bench.

Clemson was led offensively by Delicia Washington who finished with 17 points and seven assists while Gabby Elliott had 16 points and four boards in the loss.

As a team, the Panthers only turned the ball over nine times while Clemson committed 22 turnovers in the loss. Pitt also held the edge in scoring in the paint, 40-26, and points off of turnovers 14-6.

UP NEXT

Pitt will have a quick turnaround as they will head to Syracuse to take on the Orange Thursday, Jan. 28 at 6:00 pm on ACC Network Extra.

PITT NOTES
Team

With the win, Pitt levels the all-time series with Clemson, 8-8. Pitt also improves to 3-4 all-time in games in South Carolina.
Pitt downed Clemson in both regular season meetings marking the first time in program history Pitt has swept an ACC opponent in the regular season.
The nine turnovers for Pitt were their fewest in a game since Dec. 31, 2017.
The Pitt bench posted a season-high 39 points.

Liatu King

King finished off her strong game with a career-high 15 points, eight rebounds and an assist off the bench.
The freshman played a career-high 22 minutes while finishing the game going 7-for-11 from the floor.
She grabbed a career-high four offensive rebounds in the win.
King has scored in double figures in two games this season.
She has grabbed at least five rebounds in three games including in two straight.

Destiny Strother

Strother had the best game of her career off the Pitt bench on Tuesday as she finished with a career-high 15 points, three rebounds and a steal across 27 minutes of work.
Strother went an efficient 6-for-8 from the floor and a perfect 2-for-2 from the charity stripe in the win.
The 27 minutes were a career-high while her three rebound effort tied a career-best.
The 15-point effort marked her first career game scoring in double digits.

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