Pitt women's basketball coach Agnus Berenato professed she had all the confidence in the world that leading scorer Shavonte Zellous would return to form in time for the NCAA tournament. Those feelings were confirmed when she saw Zellous in the pregame shoot-around a few hours before last week's first-round victory against Wyoming.

"She had her smile back," Berenato explained. "Shavonte has a million dollar smile. At the shoot-around she was saying, 'I'm a scoring machine. I can't be stopped.' When she can joke around and have fun like that, I know she's going to play well."

Later that night, Zellous had her best game in nearly a month, leading the Panthers past Wyoming with 21 points. Two days later, Zellous scored 19 points in Pitt's second-round victory against No. 3 seed Baylor, a win that sent the Panthers to the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history.

The No. 6 seed Panthers will try to keep their magical postseason going tomorrow night against No. 2 seed Stanford in a third-round game in Spokane, Wash.

Before the NCAA tournament, Zellous, a junior guard from Orlando, Fla., who is averaging 18.1 points per game, had been in a major slump that coincided with the team's slide. Pitt lost six of its final nine regular-season games, and Zellous scored 13 points or fewer in five of those games.

In a 90-64 loss to No. 1 Connecticut at the Petersen Events Center, Zellous had one of the worst games of her career. She was 2 for 10 from the field and scored nine points. Worse yet, she got a concussion that prevented her from playing in the next game against Marquette.

After sitting out against Marquette, Zellous came back to score 29 points in a win against West Virginia. But the good times were short-lived.

Zellous managed 13 points in each of the final two regular-season games and found no answers at the Big East tournament, where she scored nine points in victories against Villanova and Notre Dame and 11 in a blowout loss to Connecticut.

"I was never worried about her," Berenato said. "I just think it was very tough for her to come back after the concussion. She had one really good game, but after that, she just wasn't the same. When you get an injury like that -- her eye was closed -- it's tough.

"She's a perimeter player and her first step is so quick. She likes to attack. But she started settling for jump shots. She wasn't going into crowds where she could get whacked with an elbow or something. It wasn't intentional. I don't even think she was thinking about. But subconsciously, I think it was affecting her. It's human nature. You're going to be leery."

Any effects of the concussion are long gone now. Zellous and the Panthers returned home from the Big East tournament for some much-needed rest and refocusing.

Zellous got back in the gym and began to practice the way she had been playing earlier in the season, driving and penetrating to the basket without fear. That carried over into the Wyoming and Baylor games. She was 7 for 19 from the field against Wyoming and 7 for 13 against Baylor.

"It's been good," Zellous said. "I know during the Big East tournament I didn't play the way I am capable of playing. I just looked at the NCAA tournament as another opportunity for me to come out and play, and try to help my team win."

The Panthers will need Zellous to remain on a hot streak if they have any hope of competing with Stanford, which is riding a 20-game winning streak. The Cardinal has not lost a game since Jan. 6 and is coming off two lopsided victories in the first two rounds of the tournament.

"We know they're a good team," Zellous said. "But we just have to go out and play our game against them. It doesn't matter who we're playing, we have to go out there and play the way we play. We can't worry about what Stanford is going to do."