Pitt Heads North For ACC Battle Against Syracuse Thursday Night

PITTSBURGH – The Pitt women's basketball team (7-7, 0-3) looks to end a two-game skid Thursday night as they head to Syracuse to take on the Orange at the JMA Wireless Dome. Thursday's game will tip at 6:00 pm and air live on ACC Network with Jenn Hildreth and Debbie Antonelli on the call.

HOW TO FOLLOW

Thursday'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

Junior Liatu King has been the Panthers' best player all season long as she leads the squad averaging 11.0 points and 8.6 rebounds while shooting 44.9% from the floor. King ranks 6th in the ACC in rebounding while posting five games with 10+ boards this season.
Senior captain Amber Brown netted her third straight game in double figures last time out as she finished with a team-high 19 points and three steals against Miami. Over her last five games, Brown is averaging a team-high 13.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.4 steals while shooting 53.7% from the floor.

THE OPENING TIP

The Panthers hit the road Thursday for a matchup against the Syracuse Orange inside the Dome. Thursday's game will tip at 6:00 pm and air on ACC Network.
The Pitt defense is doing a great job of turning opponents over so far this season as they are forcing an average of 17.1 turnovers/game.
The Panthers are averaging 8.8 steals per game while their 123 steals on the season are the most through 14 games for Pitt since 2016-17 (126). • The undersized forward duo of Liatu King and Amber Brown have combined to average 20.2 points and 13.8 rebounds while shooting 47.6% from the floor on the year.

THE SERIES WITH SYRACUSE

This meeting marks the 69th of all-time between the two programs with Syracuse owning the 49-19 lead in the series.
The 69 games played are the most against any opponent in program history.
The Orange have won 22 straight against Pitt with the Panthers last win in the series coming on Jan. 24, 2009 in Syracuse.
Pitt is 7-26 all-time in games played in Syracuse.

BEST CONFERENCE IN THE COUNTRY: THE ACC

The ACC continues to prove that it is the best women's basketball conference in the country.
In the latest NET Rankings released Monday, the ACC has seven teams in the Top-30, the most among any conference.
Overall, 14 ACC teams rank inside the Top-90 in the latest NET Rankings. » The ACC landed three teams in the Associated Press Top 10: Notre Dame (4th), Virginia Tech (9th) and NC State (10th) and a total of five in the Top 25: Duke (19th) and North Carolina (22nd).
Three of the Top-20 scoring defenses in the country are in the ACC -- Duke (2nd), Virginia Tech (12th) and Virginia (20th).

NET RANKING BY CONFERENCE
Conference     Top-25             Top-50             Top-100
ACC                  5                      8                      14
Big Ten            4                      9                      11
SEC                  4                      9                      12
Pac-12             5                      8                      11
Big 12              4                      6                      9

BROWN MAKING 95^TH STRAIGHT START THURSDAY

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 94 career games for the Panthers while averaging 27.8 minutes per game in her career. Brown will be making her 95th straight start to begin her career Thursday, marking the most consecutive starts to begin a career for a Pitt player since Brianna Kiesel started a program record 122 straight games in her illustrious career.
Last time out, Brown led the Panthers in scoring for the second straight game while scoring in double figures for the third straight game. She finished the Miami loss with 19 points, three steals and two rebounds while going 7-for-14 from the floor and 5-for-7 from the free throw line.
Brown has been great for Pitt over her last five games as she has four games scoring in double figures. In her last five games, Brown is averaging a team-high 13.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.4 steals while shooting 53.7% from the floor.
With her third point and third rebound against Wake Forest last week, Brown became the first Panther since Chelsea Cole (2007-11) to record at least 800 career points and 600 career rebounds.
Earlier this year against Ball State, 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-for10 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 9.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists while shooting a team-high 51.7% from the floor. She is currently 5th in the ACC in field goal percentage (51.7%) while shooting over 50% from the floor in seven of 14 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 42 times while grabbing 10+ rebounds 16 times. She has also secured at least five rebounds in 65 of her 94 career games.
She has racked up nine career double-doubles with five coming during her impressive freshman season.

NEXT UP

The Panthers return to action Sunday afternoon as they travel to Louisville, KY to take on the perennial power Cardinals at the KFC YUM! Center.
Sunday's game will tip at 2:00 pm and air live on ACC Network.

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