Pitt Set To Welcome Louisville Sunday For ACC Opener On ACC Network

PITTSBURGH – The Pitt women's basketball team (6-4, 0-0 ACC) opens up Atlantic Coast Conference play Sunday afternoon as they welcome the Louisville Cardinals to the Petersen Events Center for a 2:00 pm tip. The Panthers and Cardinals battle will air live on ACC Network with Sam Ravech and Kelly Gramlich on the call at the Pete.

HOW TO FOLLOW

Sunday's game will air live on ACC Network and can be viewed HERE.
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

Senior Amber Brown had the best game of her impressive Pitt career last time out against Ball State as she tied a career-high with 20 points to go along with a career-high 17 rebounds and three blocks while going 7-for-10 from the floor. Her 17 rebounds are tied for the most by an ACC player this season while her monster double-double marked her first of the season and ninth of her career.
Junior forward Liatu King is enjoying a great start to her season as she is leading Pitt in scoring (11.3 ppg) and rebounding (8.7 rpg) while shooting 47.4% from the floor. King currently ranks 6th in the ACC in rebounding.

THE OPENING TIP

Pitt returns home Sunday afternoon as they welcome Louisville to the Petersen Events Center for a 2:00 pm tip. Sunday's game will air on ACC Network.
The Pitt defense has been leading the way all season long as they rank 5th in the ACC and 24th in the NCAA in field goal percentage defense (34.6%). Pitt has held 38 of their last 40 opponents to 45% or less shooting from the floor.
Last time out, Pitt had four players score in double figures for the first time this season. Brown led the way with 20, King had 19, Harris had 13 and Johnson finished with 10.

THE SERIES WITH LOUISVILLE

This meeting marks the 26th between the two programs with Louisville owning the 23-2 lead in the all-time series.
The Cardinals have won 19 straight in the series with Pitt's last win coming on Feb. 14, 2010.
Louisville is 10-2 all-time in games played in Pittsburgh.

LAST TIME OUT – BALL STATE

The Panthers returned home Sunday afternoon as they hosted Ball State for their 2nd Annual ASL Deaf Awareness Game. The Panthers couldn't secure the win as the Cardinals survived 68-66 in overtime.
Senior Amber Brown had the best game of her career in the loss as she netted 20 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks on 7-for-10 from the floor. The double-double marked her ninth of her career as the points, rebounds and blocks were all career-highs.
Sunday hit close to home for Liatu King as her first language was American Sign Language. King showed out in front of her family as she finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and four blocks in the loss.
Dayshanette Harris came off the bench and finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists while Maliyah Johnson scored in double figures once again as she netted 10 points, five rebounds and three steals.
As a team, Pitt scored 44 points in the paint while grabbing a season-high 50 rebounds.

DEFENSE LEADING THE WAY FOR PITT

The Panthers have leaned on their strong defense to start the season and it earned them six double digit wins to open the 2022-23 campaign.
Pitt currently ranks 5th in the ACC in field goal percentage defense (34.6%) while also ranking 8th in three-point field goal defense (29.2%). The Panthers are holding opponents to 61.0 ppg so far this season.
Pitt held four of its first 10 opponents to 45 points or less for the first time in program history. The Panthers are one of just eight teams in the country to have four games with opponents scoring 45 points or less (South Carolina, Virginia Tech, USC, ETSU, Kansas State, Duke, Stanford).
Last week, Pitt held Loyola (MD) to just 17.9% shooting in the win. It marked the lowest field goal percentage against the Panthers in over 15 years. There have only been nine games this season in the entire NCAA with a team shooting 17.9% or worse from the field.
Dating back to last season, the Panthers have now held 38 of their last 40 opponents to 45% or under shooting from the floor. Last season Pitt was one of two squads (South Carolina) to hold at least 29 opponents to 45% or less shooting.
The Panthers own a 23-9 record when they hold opponents to 59 points or less since Lance White took over the program in 2018-19.
The Pitt defense has been forcing turnovers at a high rate through 10 games as they have 88 total steals. It marks the most through 10 games by Pitt since 2016-17 (95).
The Panthers opened the season allowing just 41 points at Coppin State which marked the lowest total against in a season opener since 2015-16.

WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU

Senior Amber Brown has turned into one of the most consistent and reliable players on the Pitt roster over her strong four-year career.
The do-it-all player has started all 90 games for the Panthers across her career while averaging 27.8 minutes per game in her career. Her 90th straight start marks the most consecutive starts to begin a career for a Pitt player since Yacine Diop (2017-18) started 93 straight games.
Last time out, Brown had the best game of her Pitt career as she finished with 20 points, 17 rebounds, three blocks and two assists across a career-high 42 minutes of work. The 20 points tied a career-high while the 17 rebounds and three blocks marked new career-highs for the senior. She finished the game going 7-for-10 from the floor and 6-for-8 from the free throw line.
Brown is one of two players this season (Alexis Markowski - Nebraska) to post at least 20 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks while shooting at least 70% from the floor. Her 17 rebounds are also tied for the most by an ACC player this season.
On the year, Brown is averaging 8.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists while shooting a team-high 53.4% from the floor. She is currently 4th in the ACC in field goal percentage (53.4%) while shooting over 50% from the floor in six of 10 games.
Against Coppin State, Brown became the fastest Panther (81 games) since Lorri Johnson in 1989-90 (59 games) to record at least 700 points, 500 rebounds and 100 assists.
For her career, Brown has scored 10+ points 39 times while grabbing 10+ rebounds 16 times. She has also secured at least five rebounds in 63 of her 90 career games.
She has racked up nine career double-doubles with five coming during her impressive freshman season.

NEXT UP

The Panthers cap a five-game homestand and close out their non-conference slate on Wednesday, Dec. 21 as they welcome North Alabama to the Pete. Wednesday's game tips at noon and will air on ACC Network Extra.

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