The Youngstown State women's basketball team plays Pittsburgh in the winners' final of the Pitt Thanksgiving Tournament on Saturday at the Petersen Events Center. Tipoff between the Penguins and Panthers is set for 4:15 p.m.
     The Penguins picked up their first victory of the season on Friday afternoon against Weber State. The Wildcats came out on fire, making 11 of their first 12 shots to take a 27-12 lead just eight minutes into the game. From that point, YSU outscored Weber State 55-33 and held the Wildcats to 11-of-43 shooting the rest of the game. The Penguins cut the lead 38-32 at halftime, and they took their first lead at 45-43 with 14:29 remaining in the second half. Weber State led three more times before YSU scored five straight to go up 60-55 with 1:57 left. YSU then made seven of its eight free throws down the stretch. The victory was also YSU's first under first-year head coach Cindy Martin.
     Senior center Nikita LaFleur registered career-highs with 24 points and 17 rebounds in the contest. She also made 8-of-10 from the free throw line despite shooting just 42 percent from the stripe for her career. Senior forward Tiara Scott added a season-high 14 points, 12 of which came after halftime.
 
 Scouting Pitt
     Pittsburgh enters the contest 3-1 and winners of three straight contests. The Panthers defeated Elon 84-49 on Friday in the opening round of the tournament. Shavonte Zellous scored 22 points in the game, marking the fourth straight game she scored at least 20. Four other players scored in double figures for the balanced Pitt attack. Zellous, an All-America candidate, is one of four players averaging at least 10 points. Pitt has also defeated Penn State 80-59 on Monday evening and Western Michigan 88-60. The Panthers' lone loss was against No. 10 Texas A&M, 56-50. Pitt made it to the Sweet 16 last season.
 
 LaFleur Has Career Day vs. Weber
     Senior center Nikita LaFleur had the best game of her career against Weber State on Friday. She posted career-high totals in points (24), rebounds (17), field goals (8), free throws (8) and minutes (35). It was also LaFleur's second career double-double and her first since having 10 points and 10 rebounds against Clarion as a sophomore.
     LaFleur is averaging a team-best 9.3 points and 9.5 rebounds. Last season she scored averaged just 2.2 points and 3.3 rebounds. Her nine steals so far this season are already higher than her yearly totals from her junior and freshman seasons. LaFleur leads YSU in points (37), shooting percentage (.591), rebounds (38) and steals (9).
 
 Scott Starting to Find Stroke
     Senior forward Tiara Scott has bounced back from a one-point performance in the season opener to score 35 points in the past three games. She scored a season-high 14 points against Weber State, 12 of which came in the second half. Scott was 5-of-9 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line. She also grabbed a key offensive rebound with under a minute to go that forced Weber State to start fouling.
     Since going 0-for-5 in the opener at Kent State, Scott has gone 13-of-22 from the floor. She scored 13 points against Buffalo on Nov. 19, going 6-for-9 from the floor. She then scored eight points on 2-of-4 shooting and four free throws against Niagara. Last season, Scott was named Second-Team All-Horizon League after averaging 13.1 points. She has scored in double figures 23 times at YSU, and she's eclipsed the 20-point mark five times.
 
 More Assists, Less Turnovers Result in Win
     The Penguins had more assists than turnovers for the first time this season on Friday in their win over Weber State. The Penguins had a season-high 14 assists and turned the ball over a season-low 10 times. Macey Nortey and Jaquetta Westley both set career-highs with four assists apiece. No YSU player committed more than two turnovers.
     YSU's turnovers have gone down significantly in the past two games. After turning the ball over 29 times in the season opener at Kent State and 32 times against Buffalo, YSU had 19 turnovers against Niagara and 10 against Weber State. Only seven turnovers occurred after halftime against Niagara, which means YSU has only 17 turnovers in the last 60 minutes after having 73 in the season's first 100 minutes.
 
 Martin's Success Resumes in Keystone State
     Cindy Martin's first win as the head coach at Youngstown State came in the same state that earned her national recognition as a Division II head coach. Martin went 70-23 in three seasons at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, leading the Crimson Hawks to two straight Pennsylvania Athletic Conference championships. Martin is also familiar with the Panthers, having coached against them for four seasons while she was an assistant at West Virginia from 2001-05.
 
 Westley Comes Up Big in Clutch
     Jaquetta Westley made two big jumpers down the stretch in Friday's win against Weber State. Her first bucket with 2:46 remaining put YSU up 58-55 and ended a five-minute shooting drought for the Penguins. She then hit a long jumper on YSU's next possession that put the Guins up by five. Westley had been 1-of-10 from the floor and hadn't made a field goal since the 14:33 mark of the first half before those two makes.
 
 Penguins Showing Ability to Rally
     The Penguins rallied from a 15-point deficit to defeat Weber State 67-60 on Friday. Although the rally resulted in YSU's first win, the Penguins were not in an unfamiliar situation. Last Saturday, the Penguins cut a 13-point second-half deficit to three with six minutes to go against Niagara before falling 65-51. YSU also trimmed an 18-point halftime deficit down to seven against Buffalo before losing 66-42 on Nov. 19.
 
 Pitt Assistant Caroline McCombs Familiar with Penguins
     Pittsburgh assistant coach Caroline McCombs got her start in women's basketball as a standout player for Youngstown State from 1994-98. Her 1,577 career points rank as the sixth-most in school history, and her 112 career starts are a school record. She was a senior on the 1997-98 squad that defeated Memphis for YSU's first win in the NCAA tournament. McCombs and three of her classmates were inducted into the YSU Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 25. The group addressed the YSU women's basketball team at practice after the induction ceremony.