by Paul Zeise Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

And while Berenato and her top assistant Jeff Williams deserve a lot of credit for their first 99 wins, they should thank superb senior Shavonte Zellous for win No. 100 because, in the words of Mountaineers coach Mike Carey, she was "unstoppable."

Zellous scored a game-high 34 points, grabbed 5 rebounds and had 4 assists, leading the 19th-ranked Panthers to a 72-63 win before a crowd of 4,528 at Petersen Events Center. The 34 points she scored represented the second-highest total of her career and came on a day when the rest of the Panthers struggled offensively.

Zellous put on quite a show, particularly down the stretch when the Panthers (11-2, 1-0 Big East ) were trying to survive a rally by West Virginia (10-3, 0-1).

At one point, in fact, Zellous, who scored 28 points in the second half, scored 13 consecutive points and had assists on five others, meaning she was responsible for 18 of the Panthers' final 22 points.

She also shot an impressive 12 for 20 from the field (60 percent), 3 for 6 from 3-point range and 7 for 9 from the free-throw line.

It was the kind of performance that has become somewhat common for Zellous, who has developed into one of the most dominant scorers in the country.

She has averaged 28 points in the Panthers' past five games, including a 17-point game when she played limited minutes in a 43-point blowout of Western Kentucky last week.

"You cannot say enough about Shavonte Zellous' performance tonight," Berenato said. "In the second half, she was unbelievable. She scored, she had some assists, she had big rebounds down the stretch -- a couple of which she went up over everybody else and willed them into her hands. ... I thought one of the most impressive things was her composure; it was terrific on both offense and defense."

Zellous added: "Coach and my teammates have a lot of confidence in me to allow me to do the things I was doing. And the second half is always my half it seems. I felt like I kind of let my team down in the first half with my fouls, so coming out at halftime I knew I had to pick up my game.

"When I am in my zone, I am zoning [out] everything else. I just let everything else go and focus on me and what I have to do to help my team."

Pitt led at halftime, 34-31, but the first half was a grind because neither team could get much going on offense. The game remained close for the first 10 minutes of the second half -- a layup by West Virginia's Takisha Granberry with 10:25 to play tied it at 47 -- but the Panthers made a 10-0 run to take control of the game.

West Virginia did pull to within three points at 60-57, but Zellous scored on four consecutive possessions to keep the Panthers ahead. Sophronia Sallard and Shayla Scott iced the game by hitting four consecutive free throws.

Granberry, who called Zellous' performance "unbelievable," led the Mountaineers with 22 points and eight rebounds. Liz Repella added 18 points.

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