Pittsburgh Falls Behind Early And Cannot Recover In 80-60 Loss To Miami

2/29/2000

Loss places women's basketball in three-way tie for sixth place in Big East.

PITTSBURGH - Miami came out strong and quickly rolled to a 19-2 lead by the 11:55 mark. Pittsburgh rebounded and used a 16-2 run sparked by Gina Montesano's seven points, to pull within 21-18 with 5:10 to go in the half. Pittsburgh held on, but four Miami points gave the Hurricanes a 29-23 halftime advantage.

The Hurricanes opened the second half with a 15-7 scoring surge to increase their margin to 44- 30 by the 14:32 mark. A jump shot from Monique Toney and a 3-pointer from Montesano closed the gap to nine points, but Pittsburgh would come no closer.

The Hurricanes, who shot 55.4 percent for the game, limited the Panthers to just a 35.4 shooting efficiency from the field.

Pittsburgh was led by Montesano who had a team-high 16 points and Toney who added 15.

The loss placed Pittsburgh, Villanova and Miami, who each hold a 7-9 conference mark, in a three-way tie for sixth place in the Big East. The Panthers finished the regular-season with a 16-11 overall mark, their best since the 1994-95 season.