ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Pitt women's basketball coach Agnus Berenato needed only six words to summarize what the Panthers had just accomplished.

"We're going to the Sweet 16," Berenato said with a smile that was a mile wide after her team had just put the finishing touches on a 67-59 upset against Baylor in an NCAA tournament second-round game at The Pit. Pitt will next play either No. 2 seed Stanford or No. 7 seed UTEP Saturday at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena in Spokane, Wash.

And while big wins and dramatic victories often elicit some form of hyperbole, there is no denying that Berenato is right when she called this one the biggest victory in program history. It has to be -- the Sweet 16 is a place in which the Panthers have never been.

"Losing was not going to be an option, we were not going to be denied," Berenato said. "This was about a team that had the heart of a lion, they played so hard and they played so well against a tremendous, tremendous team in Baylor."

The Panthers (24-10) entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed in the Spokane Region and were considered big underdogs to Baylor (25-7), which was ranked 12th, the No. 3 seed and had been to the Sweet 16 in three of the past four years -- and had won the 2005 national championship.

But early in the game it was clear that the Panthers' physical defense was going to cause many problems for the Lady Bears.

The Panthers came out pressuring the Lady Bears and forced several early turnovers while building an early 15-7 lead. The Panthers had picked up some early fouls, however, but it seemed like a good trade-off because they had thrown the Lady Bears' offense out of rhythm.

But Baylor responded and used 3-pointers to get back into the game and took its first lead at 18-17 on a 3 by Angela Tisdale with 7:59 to play in the half. The two teams kept it close until the half, but the Lady Bears led, 28-26, going to the locker room.

"All the time we felt like we were better and it was frustrating that were down at the half," said Pitt center Marcedes Walker, who had 17 points and nine rebounds before fouling out with 5:28 to play. "We knew we could win the game and we just wanted to come out and run our game plan. We started to do that in the second half and we got back to our inside-outside game, and we also got the key stops that we needed to start building a lead."

Berenato said a big reason the Panthers won last night was simple -- they weren't intimidated by the Lady Bears and their tradition and they took control of the game instead of reacting to what Baylor did.

She said the plan was simple -- play 40 minutes of tough defense, rebound and play without fear.

"Baylor's got a great program, one of the best in the country," Berenato said. "But I think what helped was that our team being from the east, I don't know if our team really understands how great they are and they weren't intimidated by seeing that name on the uniform like they would had it been a Connecticut or a Tennessee. We as coaches, we know, we're educated about Baylor, but they aren't and they just went out and played.

"That team is one that is always in the Sweet 16 and has been to the Final Four -- but everything that goes around, comes around and now it is our turn."

As Walker said, the Panthers came out in the second half and continued to play their rugged style of physical defense and built another lead.

Pitt opened the second half with a 26-13 run to take a 52-41 advantage with 10:08 to play on a three-point play by Walker.

The run occurred mostly because the Panthers' defense began to wear on the Lady Bears and forced them into mistakes, and also because they began attacking the basket with Walker and wing Shavonte Zellous, who finished with a game-high 19 points. The Panthers continued to pick up fouls, but it didn't seem to slow them down as Berenato used her bench to try and take advantage of their depth -- and the Lady Bears' lack of it.

Baylor has only eight scholarship players and only seven actually play, and this played a role because it seemed to run out of gas just about the time it seemed like it were going to take control of the game.

The Bears came storming back with a 10-1 lead to pull to within 53-51 on two free throws from Melissa Jones with 5:28 to play. The foul was significant because it was Walker's fifth.

"When I went out it was tough but Shavonte came to me and said, 'Don't worry big girl, we got this,'" Walker said. "And I knew we'd win. My freshman year, if I went out, we were done, but we have a great team, this is a great team with a lot of good players and we can win even if I'm in foul trouble."

Baylor shot just 18 for 59 from the field (30.5 percent) and turned the ball over 15 times.