Pittsburgh women's coach Tory Verdi had a simple second-half message Sunday for his team, which was getting absolutely blown out at home against SMU.
“I kept saying ‘fight,’” he said.
His team responded — in record fashion.
The Panthers — down by 32 points in the first half, still down by 31 at intermission — tied an NCAA Division I women's basketball record for biggest comeback, rallying to stun SMU 72-59 behind 22 points from Mikayla Johnson and 21 from Khadija Faye.
The 32-point comeback tied the record set by Texas State on Feb. 18, 2006, when it trailed UTSA 40-8 late in the first half before winning 73-71 in overtime.
“I came in at halftime and said, ‘I don’t have any magic words and I don’t have any magic plays,’" Verdi said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We were just getting outworked, we were getting outplayed. It was a positive, spirited conversation. I challenged them. We talked about pride, having a sense of pride. And then essentially I gave them a roadmap to get us back into the game.”
It was one heck of a roadmap.
SMU led 46-14 late in the first half. From there, Pittsburgh finished the game on a 58-13 run.
The Panthers (9-9, 1-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) missed their first 10 shots of the game and started 2 for 20 from the field. SMU's lead was 32-7 after one quarter and the Mustangs pushed that out to the 32-point margin with 1:37 left in the half. Kylie Marshall's 3-pointer with 29 seconds left before the break gave SMU a 49-18 lead.
The Mustangs didn't score again for a long ... long ... long while.
The third quarter: Pittsburgh 28, SMU 0. Johnson and Marley Washenitz opened the second half with 3-pointers for the Panthers, but they only cut the lead to 25. Faye had six straight points midway through the third to get Pitt within 15. Verdi started to hear people whispering stats on press row as the comeback was happening.
"I think I was down in a defensive stance as well — and I don’t get that low that often," Verdi said. “I just was in the game with them. I think I had both fists like just curled up. And I was like, ‘We got this, we got this.’”
Johnson's 3-pointer with 9 seconds left in the third made it 49-46. Makalya Elmore's 3-pointer to open the fourth for Pitt capped what was a 31-0 run that tied the game.
SMU took the lead back twice in the early stages of the fourth, before Washenitz's jumper tied it at 54 and Elmore hit a 3-pointer with 4:55 left to put Pitt on top for good.
“Once the game ended and once I really realized what occurred, it’s amazing," Verdi said. "But I’m just so proud. I’m proud of the players because they made it happen. It’s not me. Our kids did this and they deserve this.”
Inside the stats
Some stat nuggets from Pitt's record-tying comeback:
— SMU shot 2 for 28 (7%) in the second half.
— Pittsburgh started 0 for 10 and 2 for 20 from the field.
— SMU was 10 for 18 from the field in the game's first 9 minutes. The Mustangs were 5 for 44 from the field in the final 31 minutes.
— SMU missed its final 21 shots from 2-point range. The Mustangs didn't have a 2-point make in the final three quarters; all five of their made baskets in the final three quarters were from beyond the 3-point arc.
— Pitt made 16 of its final 24 shots.
— SMU's Nya Robertson had 21 points in the first half, then just two in the second half. The only Mustangs player with a field goal in the second half was Zanai Jones; she was 2 for 10 in that span and her teammates combined to shoot 0 for 18 in the final two quarters.
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