The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Women’s basketball pulls upset win over Pittsburg

,”It's not everyday that you see a team open a game 0-14 from the field and still come away with the victory. But that is exactly what the Golden Eagles did in Saturday's come from behind upset over No. 23/21 ranked Pittsburgh.

The Panthers looked unstoppable early, despite being without leading scorer Shavonte Zellous. Zellous was out with a concussion and an eye injury from a non basketball related incident last Sunday.

"We missed her tonight," Panthers head coach Agnus Berenato said. "She's 20 points for us and first team All-Big East."

Even without Zellous, the Panthers were able to hold Marquette without a field goal until just over seven minutes into the game. At that point Marquette was already down 18-4.

Things didn't get much better until the end of the first half. With 1:19 left on the clock, the Golden Eagles went on an 8-0 run topped off by a last second layup by freshman forward Jocelyn Mellen, making the score 33-27 going into the break.

"Sometimes team's score quick on us and then we think it's about the offense getting back in the game," Golden Eagles head coach Terri Mitchell said. "My philosophy is, no you lock down on defense and the offense will come."

It turns out Mitchell's philosophy held true. After shooting only 28.6 percent in the first half, the Golden Eagles hit 57.1 percent in the second.

Marquette picked up right where it left off to start the second half, coming within two points of Pittsburgh. But then with the score 39-37 in favor of Pittsburgh, Panthers' center Marcedes Walker was fouled by Golden Eagles center Kelly Lam sending Walker to the line for two.

With Lam going to the bench with three fouls on the night and with Golden Eagles forward Svetlana Kovalenko already on the bench with three, Walker was able to propel the Panthers to a 49-40 lead.

"All through practice these past few days we've had a real focus of two people box (Walker) out," Mellen said. "She gets a lot of her rebounds on the weak side so we wanted to have two people to be able to push her back."

The practice paid off, as Mellen and fellow freshman forward Paige Fiedorowicz pulled Marquette back into the game.

The two teams would go back and forth until a pair of back to back threes by guards Krystal Ellis and Angel Robinson put the Golden Eagles up 65-61.

Pittsburgh would never be able to come back as Marquette went on to win 76-69.

Ellis finished with a team high 18 points and seven assists. Robin and Mellen combined for 32 points and 11 rebounds.

"I will say this as long as I'm coaching," Golden Eagles head coach Terri Mitchell said. "(The game) is 40 minutes. However you start, you can make up for it. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. Tonight was a night we did."

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