THE PITT NEWS
JANUARY 30, 2017 VOLUME 107, ISSUE 111
NO BAN, NO WALL, NO SILENCE IN PITTSBURGH
Protests and rallies broke out in Pittsburgh over the weekend following President Trump’s executive orders to restrict immigration into the United States | by Stephen Caruso, Zoe Pawliczek and Aswhini Sivaganesh | Photograph by Stephen Caruso No one was detained at the Pittsburgh International Airport Sunday, but the crowd showed up anyway. In solidarity with similar protests across the country, including those at Washington Dulles International and John F. Kennedy International airports, about 150 people gathered in the airport’s terminal to decry President Donald Trump’s wide-sweeping antiimmigration order. The president issued an executive order Friday suspending immigration to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days, all refugees for 120 days and Syrian refugees indefinitely.
In response, from Oakland to Moon Township and across the country, people once again hefted their protest signs and bundled up to speak out against the “Muslim ban.” The name comes from the president himself, whose bid for office focused on swiftly restricting access to the United States to prevent terrorist attacks. In a decidedly Pittsburgh twist, some refrains of “no hate, no fear, yinz are welcome here” — mingled with choruses of “this is what democracy looks like” — rang through the arrivals gate at the rally Sunday afternoon. As travelers streamed past, many took out cellphones to record. Some voiced support for the protests, while others shouted “Trump!” at the noisy group.
Throughout his campaign, Trump made U.S. immigration policy reform a top priority and said he would consider religious affiliations when evaluating new immigrants. In 2015, after the San Bernardino shootings, Trump, then one of many Republicans running for the party’s nomination, promised a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” But the president was adamant this weekend that religion wasn’t a motivating factor. “This is not about religion — this is about terror and keeping our country safe,” the president said in a statement. His backtracking wasn’t enough to quell the ensuing chaos. See No Silence on page 2
News No Silence, pg. 1
Outside John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and Dulles International in Washington DC, thousands gathered this Saturday, after lawful residents of the United States were detained by government officials. They’d be joined by a few hundred at the frigid corner of Forbes Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard in Pittsburgh as well — all to protest the president’s order and its consequences. Standing on that frozen corner, smiling through the cold was Jan Harkes, 46, an immigrant from the Netherlands. A green card holder, Harkes brought his American son, Calvin, to the protest. Each took turns holding a colorful homemade sign reading “Be Kind Mr. Trump.” “I’d hate to be in the position of some people arriving at JFK who are turned away at the gates. [Protesting] is the right thing to do,” Harkes said. While the ban hasn’t been lifted, by Saturday night, a lawsuit brought by the New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union managed to suspend the deportation of a few green card holders by federal immigration officials. But some individuals, even those with valid visas or green cards who were not yet American citizens, were detained by airport security for hours if they were from one of the seven countries: Libya, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan and Yemen. Yashar Aucie, a second-year bioengineering PhD student at Pitt, said his sister, Gilda Assi, and brother-in-law, Javad Fotouhi, experienced problems on Saturday during their trip back to
Oakland crime map Online at pittnews.com Baltimore from Iran, where they’d been visiting family. During the couple’s layover in Istanbul, people who were not green card holders or U.S. citizens could not board the connecting flight. Assi and Fotouhi — both born in Iran and current green card holders— arrived in the U.S. around 6:30 p.m., but were pulled out of the customs line and grilled about their families and their purpose in the United States before being released at 10:30 p.m. “My parents were planning to go to Iran in a couple weeks, but I don’t think they are planning to anymore,” Aucie said. “My brother-in-law, who is a scientist at John Hopkins University, was planning on going to Europe in June to present some of his papers, but now he said he’s not going to.” According to the Pitt Factbook, 61 out of 3,012 international students at the University are from one of the five banned countries. No current Pitt students are from Yemen or Somalia. Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher defended those students in an emailed statement Saturday saying they contribute to Pitt’s “vibrant community.” “Our University’s remarkable success story has been written by individuals who came from all over the world — by men and women who shared all types of religious beliefs,” Gallagher said in the statement. “They came to Pittsburgh to learn, to teach, to discover and to serve. Without question, we are a better University because of them.” A resounding echo of those ideals burst forth
Protesters hold signs at the No Ban, No Wall protest Sunday at Pittsburgh International Airport. Stephen Caruso ONLINE VISUAL EDITOR
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Pitt alumna Mehran Tiv, class of 2016, protested at the Pittsburgh International Airport with her mother and sister Sunday. Stephen Caruso ONLINE VISUAL EDITOR Saturday when about 300 protesters gathered in Schenley Plaza. Chants of “the people united will never be divided” melded with honks of support from passing drivers. Warmly dressed protesters initially gathered under the tent in Schenley Plaza before relocating to the corner of Forbes and Bigelow to support refugees and immigrants as part of the “No Ban! No Wall! Emergency Solidarity Rally.” ANSWER Pittsburgh — which stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism — the Thomas Merton Center, the Pittsburgh chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations hosted the rally. The crowd marched along Forbes from Pitt’s campus to a flagpole on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus, chanting along the way — a solidarity honk from one Port Authority bus eliciting cheers from the crowd. After a few more speeches, they dispersed from CMU’s campus promising to continue the fight. Even with the vocal opposition from many marching Americans, Trump’s immigration plans were among his most popular with supporters. Some still think he’s on the right track. Reza Liaghat, 53, who was just passing through the airport during Sunday’s rally, didn’t think the executive order provided clarity on immigration. Liaghat, who moved from Iran to the United States when he was 14-years-old, thought the ban was justified. “By not allowing them in, we stop the whole [terrorist] threat,” Liaghat said.
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Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey is among several Senate Republicans who had yet to comment on Trump’s order as of 7 p.m. Sunday night — a fact the protesters gathered at the airport seemed keenly aware of. At one point, a protester at the airport lifted his cell phone in the air, actively calling Toomey’s office. Chanting “where are you Toomey.” Local leaders did come through however. Pittsburgh School Board member Lynda Wrenn, City Councilman Dan Gilman and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto all visited the airport to show their support for the protesters at about 3:30 p.m. Peduto even took to a hastily set up speaker to give a brief speech on Pittsburgh’s own nativist history. Peduto described his own Italian immigrant grandparents who encountered a hostile KKK faction in Pittsburgh, and how America turned away Jewish refugees during the Holocaust. “That’s part of our history, we can’t forget it. And those who forget our history are doomed to repeat it,” Peduto said. Holding a sign that read “Pittsburgh students welcome refugees” he had hastily scribbled on cardboard about an hour earlier, Christian Beveridge, a first-year economics-statistics dual major, said he was there because “action works.” “History is watching us,” Beveridge said. “Refugees are the most American thing of all.” Contributed reporting by Abhignya Mallepalli and Eric Heckler.
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SCHUBERT NAMED NEW CHIEF OF POLICE Amanda Reed
Assistant News Editor After serving two months as acting Pittsburgh police chief, longtime Pittsburgh Police Officer Scott Schubert was announced as the new Pittsburgh Police Department police chief on Friday. Schubert, who has spent 24 years with the bureau, became assistant chief of operations in December 2014. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto asked him to take over as police chief in November after predecessor Cameron McLay’s resignation. Peduto had 90 days to select a permanent chief. Peduto asked Schubert to officially take on the role Friday, about one week before the 90-day time limit ended. Pending his approval by City Council Tuesday, Schubert will lead a roughly 900-member police force as chief.
Although Peduto’s last hire came from outside the city, he said Schubert’s years in the force give him an advantage over other candidates that don’t already know people in and out of the station. “Chief Schubert is not only respected within the police bureau, but across our neighborhoods as well,” Peduto said. “He is just the right person to steer the bureau as it grows to more than 900 officers this year, and to keep implementing the city’s commitment to community policing measures.” McLay, who served with the department for two years, officially announced his resignation Nov. 4, 2016, “to pursue other professional opportunities,” according to a press release from Mayor Peduto. His last day in office was Nov. 8. The Wisconsin native served with the department for two years. During that time, he implemented police training on fair police pro-
cedures without bias and focused on community policing and police accountability. Several of his initiatives were met with criticism from the Pittsburgh Fraternal Order of Police, the local police union. In September 2016, 95 percent of the police force voted they had no confidence in McLay. During McLay’s time with the bureau, Schubert served as the assistant chief with Assistant Chief of Administration Thomas Stangrecki. Schubert began his police career as a Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, police officer for two years and joined the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police in 1993. Schubert held every position from sergeant to commander in the bureau leading up to his swear-in as assistant chief in December 2014. Schubert also helped coordinate security during the 2009 G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. The summit is an international forum where 20 countries with major global economies meet and discuss international financial stability. He is an adjunct professor of homeland security at Point Park University, and has a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement and a master’s in justice administration from Point Park. “My dream has always been to be a Pitts-
COURTESY THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH
burgh police officer, and it is humbling to be considered for the position of chief,” he said in a press release Friday. “I look forward to continuing to serve the officers, the residents and the visitors of Pittsburgh.
VIOLENT CRIME FIRE DAMAGES TWO HOMES ON SPIKES IN OAKLAND JOE HAMMER SQUARE
James Evan Bowen-Gaddy Assistant News Editor
Multiple instances of violent crime in Oakland this weekend left one victim with minor injuries and another in critical condition. One person was robbed and assaulted at gunpoint by three unidentified suspects while walking along the 300 block of McKee Place Friday night at about 10:07 p.m. The victim reported to Pitt and city police that, after an argument, one of the suspects struck them with a black revolver and took their cell phone. Police arrested one suspect in the incident. The other two suspects — still at-large — were both 16 to 20 years old and wearing red hoodies. The victim reported that one was African-American and the other was white. City police responded to a second call near the corner of Bates and Zulema
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streets Sunday morning at 12:30 a.m., where a 36-year-old Oakland man lay injured on the sidewalk. Sonya Toler, a city police spokesperson, said the man had been beaten and stabbed, leaving him in critical condition at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. The investigation for the crime is ongoing and Toler said there is no more information available at this time. These were the third and fourth instances of violent crime this past week in Oakland. The first was a reported assault on the corner of Forbes Avenue and McKee Place on Jan. 21., in which a male suspect exited his car and punched a man who was crossing the street. The second was a shooting last Wednesday on Hamlet Street, leaving one man with minor injuries. Police ask anyone with additional information to contact Pitt police at (412) 624-2121.
Ashwini Sivaganesh News Editor
Pittsburgh emergency services responded to a fire at the 3200 block of Joe Hammer Square at 7:40 p.m. Sunday. Sonya Toler, a spokesperson for city police, said that one person suffered minor injuries and two homes were affected by the flames. She also said police are still investigating the cause of the fire. The call was initially dispatched as a three-alarm — meaning the fire department called for additional units and resources to respond to the scene — but the code was called back after personnel arrived and extinguished the fire within the hour. The fire originated in one house and scorched through the entire interior and exterior of the top-most level, damaging a bay window in the process. The adjacent duplex home suffered minor dam-
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age. About 20 firefighters continued to work inside and around the charred building even after the flames were put out. According to Toler, five people lived in the affected building. Initially the firefighters thought that one person was still inside the house, but after conducting two thorough searches they determined the person was most likely not present during the fire. Everyone got out of their homes and one woman was treated on scene but did not need to be transported to the hospital. There were no major challenges in this particular case, Toler said. “Our firefighters have been operating in this city for more than 100 years,” Toler said. “This is institutional knowledge. This was something they are well trained for.”
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INCREASE GUN CONTROL TO REDUCE SUICIDES Erica Brandbergh Columnist
Mass shootings in America often get the most attention in debates on gun control. But there’s another big issue we don’t talk about enough: suicide. Data shows that suicide rates have reached an all-time high in the past three decades. There are 20,000 gun-related suicides in the United States every year, which accounts for more than half of all suicides. The widespread availability of firearms only hurts this issue. While suicide is complex, limiting the number of and access to firearms can help to reduce and prevent thousands of deaths by suicide each year. Taking one’s own life is the second most common cause of death among Americans between ages 15 and 34 and the 10th most common cause of death at any age. While all suicides aren’t gun related, a majority are. Drug overdose, the most commonly used method for suicide, results in death only 3 percent of the time, See Brandbergh on page 7
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counterpoint
while 85 percent of gun suicides are successful, indicating that guns could be the most lethal weapon for committing suicide. Most people who make the final decision to end their lives attempt suicide shortly after. When you have a gun readily available, the decision is swifter and more reliable than those who wait or plan. Tactics like gun licensing laws, background checks and gun-suicide awareness campaigns can help slow down the process and save lives.
FOCUS ON CAUSES, NOT GUNS, TO STOP SUICIDE
Jeremy Wang Columnist
Guns don’t cause suicide. Just as we can’t blame all 15,000 murders per year on firearms, we can’t attribute the United States’ suicides, over 44,000 per year, entirely to its high rate of gun ownership and availability. While guns do play a part, it’s more important to consider the underlying causes of
Information from IZA Jordan Mondell LAYOUT EDITOR
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suicide rather than merely restricting access to guns. Many developed countries have high rates of suicide despite having strict firearms regulation. Japan, a nation with the lowest rate of gun ownership among all developed countries, has a suicide rate nearly 50 percent higher than the United States. Nearly every type of firearm is outlawed in South Korea, but at 29 suicides per 100,000 people, Korea’s suicide rate is the highest among developed countries — over double that of the United States. Australia’s National Agreement on Firearms and Buyback Program in 1996 is seemingly a good example of how limiting the number of guns in a country can reduce suicides. But upon closer examination of a graph that tracks rates of suicides before and after the buyback, it’s clear that suicides committed using a firearm in Australia were already declining for nearly a decade before the buyback. But more recently, suicides in Australia climbed to a 13-year high by the end of 2015, a trend Australian Mental Health Commissioner Ian Hickie attributed to untreated depression and a See Wang on page 7
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Brandbergh, pg. 6 To enact this in the United States, we should look at how increased regulations played out around the world. Israel is a proven example of how gun control can reduce suicides. Because of the high suicide rates among military members, the army stopped allowing soldiers to take their service weapons home with them on weekends and the suicide rate fell by 40 percent in 2006. In Australia, after a national gun buyback in 1996 that bought around 650,000 guns back from Australians — almost 20 percent of the guns owned in the country — the rate at which people died by suicide with guns decreased by 80 percent. In the United States, the top three states with the highest number of guns — Wyoming, Montana and Alaska — are among the four top states with the highest rates of suicide. Studies published in 2013 found that among all age groups, states with higher rates of gun ownership per household also had higher rates of firearm suicides. And youth with access to guns at home are also often the victims of disturbing suicides. Take the example of a 15-yearold girl from Arizona who shot and killed her girlfriend and another friend before taking her own life. A classmate reportedly gave her the gun, after she asked for one for protection and he took a gun from his house to let her borrow. Even when Americans lawfully and responsibly own guns, there’s no way to guarantee they will always be secure and used only for self-protection or recreation. But suicide rates fall when states require licensing. Connecticut’s suicide-byfirearm rate fell by 15.4 percent after permits were required to purchase handguns in 1995 and, conversely, when Missouri repealed their gun licensing law in 2007, suicide rates increased. When it comes down to timing, even brief delays in accessing firearms can help. A report from Harvard’s School of Public Health conducted in 2001 focused on 13- to 34-year-olds who attempted suicide but were saved by medical intervention. For more than two-thirds of these people, the time that elapsed between deciding to act and taking action was an hour or less.
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While there are other factors we must consider when discussing suicide rates pg. 6 — namely mental health awareness and suffering manufacturing sector — meantreatment or economic and geographic ing even if we consider the buyback to be an factors — restricting gun access and initial success, it failed to decrease suicide availability is a necessary step to take in rates long term. While decreasing guns in a order to start combating our high rates of country may limit suicides temporarily, the suicide. Australian case shows us that a more sysTo reduce these fatalities, blocking actematic approach to treating mental health cess to hard-to-fail methods like guns can is key to reducing suicide permanently. curb and prevent suicides. Chances of faGun control advocates whose support tality rise drastically when guns are presfor stricter reform lies mainly in reducing ent because guns kill easily, quickly and suicides ignore the complex and multifacetoffer little to no time for reconsideration. ed mental health, economic and cultural isEven without access to firearms, suisues that persist beyond just the availability cides would still occur by other methods. of guns. A heavier focus on economic and But methods that are not gun related health predeterminants affecting suicide take more time and planning. Limiting rates should be the priority when we conpeople’s access to guns means increasing sider how to combat suicide. the time one would have to rethink their The Center for Disease Control and Predecision or be stopped by someone intervention is working to maximize referrals vening. Even if gun control only saves a of at-risk individuals to trained counselors fraction of these victims’ lives, it is well along with community awareness programs worth it. to help State If you or a friend is struggling with depression, anxiety, suicidal i d e n t i f y l i c e n s i n g thoughts or any form of mental illness: risk faclaws and Call the Counseling Center: 412-648-7930-, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. or tors such as m a n d a - 1-888-796-8226 at any time, for any reason. subst ance tory back- If you need immediate help or counseling, call the Pitt Police: 412abuse and g r o u n d 624-2121. exposure checks for To participate in a group counseling session any day of the week, call to violence gun own- or visit the Counseling Center on the second floor of Nordenberg and other ership can Hall between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. suicides. slow access Off-Campus Options: Presito guns. Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic: 412-624-1000 d e n t Even a Re:solve Crisis Network: 1-888-796-8226 Obama isshort delay sued an can be efexecutive order in January 2016 that reinfective in preventing suicides as it would forced reporting between mental health cause someone to contemplate their deciservices and the background check datasion as they wait to get their gun. base. While restricting dangerous weapons While the debate on gun control confrom those who are seriously ill is not a tinues, the simplest way to start making contentious issue, Obama’s decision to althis change is for gun owners to lock up locate $500 million in mental health funds their firearms in safes and store the amhighlights the way we should be treating the munition somewhere separate. No menintersection of guns and mental health in tal health campaign or gun control policy America today. is going to completely prevent every suiA closer examination of suicide rates by cide. But right now, the small steps we county in the United States reveals similar can and should take include encouraging contradictions between strict gun laws and heavier gun control laws. high suicide rates. California, for example, If we want to reduce suicides, we can features some of the strictest gun laws in the start with reducing the weapons available country, mandating written exams before for committing them. purchasing a handgun and 10-day waiting periods. Erica primarily writes about social isYet counties in northern and central sues and mental health for The Pitt News. California have high suicide rates despite Write to Erica at elb116@pitt.edu. their gun regulations. Trinity and Alpine
Wang,
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counties in California grapple with suicide rates more than double and almost triple the national average, respectively, and Siskiyou, Lake and Mariposa counties are all 67 percent higher than the country’s norm. And the data from 247 counties — five counties with the highest suicide rates from each state — their average is nearly twice the national suicide rate. These counties from around the country display striking correlations between high suicide rates and struggling economies, limited physical and mental health care and poor access to higher education. Poverty levels were 27 percent higher than the national average and individuals in these counties earned 17 percent less overall. While it’s easy to consider gun control and suicides only by the numbers, these examples demonstrate the nuance of such a complicated issue. Guns are used in suicides often but they’re not the root cause. Economic background, education and access to proper physical and mental health care are more important, underlying issues that cause high suicide rates. High disability rates, a useful indicator for poor access to health care, was also prevalent. These counties displayed disability rates 41 percent higher than the national average and their residents were 36 percent more likely to be uninsured. Attainment of higher education is likewise a strong predictor for better job placement, earnings and quality of life, but 90 percent of these counties lagged behind the national average. Some of the counties analyzed had suicide rates below the national average, illustrating the flip-side of these trends. The counties with lower rates of suicide were predictably better off economically, had higher levels of education and enjoyed significantly greater health care access and insurance coverage — facts that highlight the root causes underlying suicide that exist outside of guns. Tackling the underlying factors that cause someone to attempt suicide, such as lower economic status, less education and mental health diagnoses, is a more effective way to reduce suicide rates permanently than attempting to bandage the flow by restricting access to guns. Suicides are a problem — and an important one, no doubt — but gun control is not the answer. Jeremy Wang primarily writes about gun policy for The Pitt News. Write to him at jiw115@pitt.edu.
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RACCIATO RETURNS AS PITT FALLS TO UNC
Steve Rotstein Sports Editor
The No. 24 Pitt wrestling team got one experienced starter back Saturday against North Carolina: senior 149-pounder Mikey Racciato. But junior Dom Forys — the team’s top-ranked wrestler — missed his third straight match, and it was too much for the team to overcome. Pitt junior Brendan Price, Forys’ inexperienced replacement at 133 pounds, lost a 21-9 major decision in a match Forys would have been an overwhelming favorite to win. The four-point major decision wound up being the difference in the meet, as the UNC Tar Heels (6-5 overall, 1-2 ACC) knocked off the Panthers (8-4 overall, 0-2 ACC) at the Fitzgerald Field House, 20-16. Pitt has stumbled to a pair of disappointing losses to start conference play while dealing with a sudden and unexplained midseason coaching change. Jason Peters was removed from his position as Pitt’s head coach following an incident during the Taleb Rahmani defeats UNC’s Joey Moon, but Panthers fall as a team, 20-16. team’s trip to Evanston, Illinois, over winter break. Donny Falk STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
At least three wrestlers invited women from Backpage.com to their hotel room and later called the police for a report of stolen money. Despite the removal of Peters, and the absence of at least two wrestlers in meets since winter break, Pitt has refused to comment on whether anyone was suspended and what Peters’ involvement was. “Any disciplinary actions that have taken place are a private issue between the staff and student-athletes,” Pitt Athletics Spokesperson E.J. Borghetti told The Pitt News Sunday. Racciato didn’t compete at the Pitt Duals on Jan. 14, or the Panthers’ matches vs. Virginia Tech and Virginia Military Institute last weekend, while Forys missed both matches last weekend along with Saturday night’s dual meet against UNC. “[Mikey] had a little shoulder injury that he suffered at Midlands. He had to withdraw out of the Midlands tournament,” Pitt acting co-head coach Matt Kocher said after Saturday’s meet. Kocher said Forys, the No. 8 133-pounder in See Wrestling on page 9
MISSED IT BY THAT MUCH: PITT LOSES TO NO. 9 LOUISVILLE Kevin Bertha
For The Pitt News The Pitt women’s basketball team has tested some of the best teams in the ACC like Louisville and N.C. State, only to give up the lead toward the end of the game and walk off in defeat. Sunday afternoon, the Panthers once again battled against the best but ultimately came up short. Pitt gave the No. 9 Louisville Cardinals a scare for the second time in three weeks, only to fade in the second half and fall short of a potential upset. “Sometimes I feel like a broken record,” Pitt head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio said. “Louisville is a great team. They once again proved why they are a top-10 team in the country, but we gave them everything we had in the first half.” The Cardinals (20-4 overall, 7-2 ACC) defeated the Panthers (12-9 overall, 3-5 ACC), 6348, on Sunday afternoon at the Petersen Events Center. Pitt controlled the majority of the first half but only took a two-point lead into the break. After the break, Louisville controlled the
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tempo, eventually amassing a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter. The Panthers trimmed it to seven with 3:30 left in the game, but that was as close as they would come. “I’m not content with this game today,” McConnell-Serio said. “I’m not satisfied with where we are. I want to be playing in March with this team. I don’t want our last game to be if we’re eliminated from the ACC Tournament. But we have to find a way to beat some of these teams, and we have to keep believing that we can.” Louisville forward Mariya Moore was the difference in the game, leading all players with 20 points on five threes and eight rebounds on the afternoon. “Mariya Moore has killed us every time we play Louisville,” McConnell-Serio said. “I don’t know if she sees Pitt on the jersey and her eyes light up, I don’t know ... she just hits timely threes every time we play them.” In their last matchup, Pitt graduate transfer center Brandi Harvey-Carr scored a career-high 25 points in the Panthers’ 73-52 loss to Louisville Jan. 8. She had another efficient performance
Sunday, finishing with a team-high 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, but it wasn’t enough to pull out the win. “I feel like I didn’t come out as strong [in the second half] as I was in the first half,” HarveyCarr said. “I felt like they kind of changed their aggressiveness, and I feel like I wasn’t as aggressive as I should have been.” Harvey-Carr started the game with a turnaround jumper off the backboard for two, but Louisville responded with a 3-pointer from Moore to take the lead. Panthers sophomore forward Brenna Wise then answered with a three of her own, and added a layup next time down the court to make it 7-3 Pitt. Moore hit another three to make it a onepoint game with 1:05 left in the first quarter, but Panthers sophomore forward Kalista Walters responded with a buzzer-beating layup to give Pitt a 17-14 lead at the end of the first. The Panthers played suffocating defense in the first quarter, holding Louisville to 5-of-16 Brenna Wise goes up for a contested shooting while making 70 percent of their own layup en route to 12 points on the See Basketball on page 9 game. Evan Meng STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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Wrestling, pg. 8 the nation, has also been hampered by an injury. “[Forys] has had a high-ankle sprain, we’ve been dealing with some things, so it’s about getting him ready for March,” Kocher said. If both wrestlers were taken out for injuries, as Kocher suggests, only Peters has been penalized for what happened in Evanston. Kocher and Drew Headlee have taken over in Peters’ absence, and were acting as co-coaches for the third meet Saturday night. The teams split the 10 bouts Saturday with five wins apiece, but the Tar Heels picked up two major decision victories and a pin while the Panthers only managed one major decision. “It didn’t go the way we wanted. We gave up too many bonus points, but they competed, and they won matches, they were scoring points,” Kocher said. “I’m excited to see what we can do in the next month and a half.” Pitt 125-pound sophomore LJ Bentley started off the meet with a takedown as soon as the whistle blew for the first period. UNC’s James Szymanski would escape, but neither wrestler could generate any more offense in the period. Bentley scored an escape early in the second period then added another takedown to take a 5-1 lead. After Szymanski fought his way back
to his feet, Bentley added one more takedown to claim a 7-2 lead into the third, and he wound up with a 9-3 decision victory. Price then took the mat for his first match since the 2014-2015 season in place of Forys against Tar Heels 133-pounder Nicholas Lirette. The two put on an exciting show in the first period, as Price countered two Lirette takedowns with a pair of reversals to the delight of the Panthers’ bench. Lirette led 7-5 after the first period, then turned up the pressure in the next two periods to rack up a 21-9 major decision. Despite the loss, Kocher was proud of the way Price competed in his 2017 debut. “Win or lose, I don’t think anybody in the stands was disappointed with that performance,” Kocher said. “He got momentum for us. We were fired up going into the next weight class, even though we lost.” Pitt sophomore Robert Lee then faced one of two top-10 wrestlers for the Tar Heels — returning All-American and No. 5-ranked 141-pounder Joey Ward. Ward built a comfortable 6-1 lead in the first period with a takedown and four near fall points, then cruised the rest of the way to a 10-1 major decision.
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Basketball, pg. 8 shots from the field. But the Cardinals held a 9-6 rebounding advantage and made 3-of-7 attempts from beyond the arc to keep the game close. Louisville stormed back in the second quarter, going on a 10-1 run and tying the game at 26. First-year guard Alayna Gribble scored with 2:37 left in the half to help the Panthers regain the lead at 28-26. Both teams endured scoring droughts towards the end of the second quarter, and Pitt went into the break holding a 28-26 lead. The Panthers’ hot shooting should have been the story of the first half, as they made 60 percent of their attempts while holding the Cardinals to 30.3 percent shooting. But Louisville enjoyed a significant advantage in the offensive rebounding department, pulling down 10 offensive rebounds to just one for Pitt. These extra opportunities helped the Cardinals stay in the game despite shooting only 30 percent from the floor in the first half. Louisville pounced on the Panthers out of the break, scoring the first 14 points of the second half to take a 40-28 lead. Pitt managed only seven points in the third quarter while the Cardinals dominated on both
ends of the floor to take a 47-35 lead into the fourth. The Panthers fell behind 52-35 in the fourth quarter, then sophomore guard Cassidy Welsh helped engineer an 11-1 run to pull Pitt within seven with 3:30 left in the game. But the Cardinals answered with a pair of 3-pointers from guard Asia Durr to push their lead back to double digits and effectively seal the victory. Wise had one answer after the game for why the Panthers let the game slip away. “Our third quarter performance,” Wise said. “We got outscored by 14 points, they went on a 12-0 run I think. That gives them momentum, and you can’t allow that to happen.” Pitt still outshot Louisville for the game, making 46.3 percent of its shots compared to just 34.5 percent for the Cardinals. But Louisville outrebounded the Panthers 39-26, including a 19-5 advantage on the offensive boards, creating plenty of second-chance scoring opportunities. “Sometimes when you play a zone, that’s a scary thing, but you know that it’s going to happen, some teams get offensive rebounds. It’s the points you give up off those offensive rebounds [that matter],” McConnell-Serio said. Next up for Pitt is a trip to Syracuse, New York, to take on the Syracuse Orange at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2.
The Pitt News SuDoku 1/30/17 courtesy of dailysudoku.com
pittnews.com
January 30, 2017
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