ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The Pitt women's basketball team enjoys a distinct advantage in size and athleticism over Wyoming, the Panthers' opponent in an NCAA tournament first-round game today at The Pit in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

But that is nothing new for the Cowgirls, who routinely get outrebounded playing a style that negates any physical advantages their opponents might have.

In fact, in some ways the Cowgirls could be a matchup nightmare for the Panthers because they are an extremely patient and disciplined team and will make sure every one of their offensive possessions goes deep into the shot clock. Wyoming also shoots well and is almost exclusively a man-to-man defensive team.

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Scouting Report

• Matchups: No. 6 seed Pitt (22-10) vs. No. 11 seed Wyoming (24-6), 4 p.m. today; The Pit, Albuquerque, N.M.
• TV: ESPN2
• Pitt-Wyoming: Wyoming finished third in the Mountain West. The Cowgirls are in the NCAA tournament for the first time. ... Pitt beat Wyoming, 79-76, Nov. 30, 1980, in the only meeting between the two teams. ... Wyoming's leading scorer is 6-foot forward Hanna Zavecz. She was also the defensive player of the year in the MWC. ... Zavecz, who is from Australia, is one of seven Cowgirls from overseas.
• Hidden stat: Big East teams are 21-9 against teams from the Mountain West but are only 6-4 against the conference over the past two seasons.

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That means the Panthers will have to be patient on both ends and if they fall behind early, they will have a hard time coming back.

Wyoming coach Joe Legerski was asked yesterday to compare the style of his team to teams in the Big East. He said there isn't a great comparison, but if he had to pick one it would be Villanova, which spreads the floor and runs a motion offense.

"We are a motion team," said Legerski. "We want to spread the floor but there are some nights where we will win or lose depending on how well we shoot the ball from 19 feet [3-pointers] and that gets difficult on some evenings. We like to keep our turnover rates down and while we will transition at times, we want to make sure we get a good shot."

Pitt (22-10) beat Villanova twice this season but struggled in both games as the Wildcats were able to dictate the pace. A key for the Panthers is that they didn't fall behind in either game.

Still, Legerski said the Panthers' size and strength will pose a major problem for the Cowgirls (24-6) because they have no real answer for center Marcedes Walker and because they don't see the physical brand of basketball played in the Big East.

Wyoming, which is playing in its first NCAA tournament, will attempt to counter Walker two different ways depending on which team has the ball.

The first will involve 6-foot senior forward Hanna Zavecz, who was the Mountain West Conference defensive player of the year. Zavecz probably won't guard Walker the entire game but will clearly have a major role in slowing her down.

The second will be to take Walker -- assuming the Panthers play man-to-man defense -- away from the basket on defense by having who she is guarding step out to the top of the key and set picks. This isn't much different than what other teams have done, but it will require the Panthers to communicate, as they will need to switch and help as much as they can.

Both teams will come into the game without a good idea of how to approach the other. The two teams have only met once -- and that was in 1980 -- and this year they don't play any common opponents.

If there is one advantage the Cowgirls might have, it is their familiarity with The Pit, which is the home court of New Mexico, which plays in the same conference, as well has playing in higher altitudes.

Pitt coach Agnus Berenato knows the Panthers have their hands full with the Cowgirls, but she believes they are going to be up to the challenge.

"We don't worry about altitude, we're worried about attitude," she said.

"They have a marvelous team and they are incredibly disciplined. But this year we scheduled with [the NCAA tournament] in mind so we went to Maryland, we played Duke at Madison Square Garden, we opened with three games in State College and we were on the road for almost all of December.

"So we've played in front of a lot of big crowds and we're hoping this game is sold out as well, even if we don't have a lot of our fans here because this team, more than anything else, loves to play in a great atmosphere."