The Miami Hurricanes women’s basketball team finished their 2019-20 regular season Sunday afternoon with a victory, beating the Pittsburgh Panthers 73-54, on senior day at the Watsco Center.
“That’s two wins in a row,” head coach Katie Meier said. “I think if you watched our team all year, we are playing our best basketball of the season right now.”
Miami (15-14, 7-11 ACC) honored it’s only senior, forward Beatrice Mompremier, before the game. The Miami native joined the Canes in 2017-18 after playing two seasons at Baylor. Mompremier has averaged 16.7 and 11.7 rebounds per game during her time with the Canes. She’s on track to finish her Miami career averaging a double-double and she’ll be only the third player in Miami program history to do so.
“I got emotional and I think she got a little bit emotional too,” Meier said. “You know there has been highs and lows. There has been a ton of highs in Beatrice’s career, but I think if you ever celebrated an athlete for their grace, their strength and their resilience, it’s this one right here.”
The game started as a back and forth battle but a late 17-4 run to end the first half helped Miami take a 37-21 halftime lead. A dominating third quarter helped Miami extend its 16 point halftime lead to a 26 point lead heading into the fourth. The Panthers continued to fight in the fourth quarter, but Miami’s early lead was too much to overcome.
“Pitt has some really good young players and I thought they fought really hard and they fought to the buzzer,” Meier.
Pitt guard Dayshanette Harris led the Panthers with 22 points on 7-15 shooting from the field. Forward Amber Brown also added 14 points on 50 percent shooting from the field.
Junior guard Kelsey Marshall led the way for Miami with 21 points on 8-12 shooting from the field and 5-9 from three-point range. Junior guard Mykea Gray also added 19 points on 5-12 shooting from the field. Mompremier scored 13 points and grabbed her 1,000th career rebound in the game, becoming only the third player in UM history to score over 1,000 points and grab over 1,000 rebounds.
“I’m happy about it, but we still have a lot of games to play,” Mompremier said.
The Hurricanes will have three days off before they travel to Greensboro, North Carolina for the first round of the ACC Tournament. No. 11 Miami is slated to face No. 14 Clemson on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
“It’s one game at a time. In the past two years, [Beatrice] has not played when we have played Clemson. So, it’ll be interesting,” Meier said. “We feel like we still have a lot left, so that’s how I’m looking at this tournament. We are undefeated in march, so if that continues it’ll be a good month.”