Welcome back, Jania Sims.

Sims, Pitt's enormously talented junior point guard, had appeared in only one game in the past 23 months coming into this season and looked extremely rusty Tuesday in the opener against North Florida.

But last night Sims showed flashes of her former self and looked a lot more like the player who Pitt coach Agnus Berenato believes can be the Panthers' next All-American as well as the next one who leads them to their fourth consecutive NCAA tournament berth.

Sims scored 16 points, had 3 assists and 2 steals and led the Panthers to an impressive 81-58 destruction of Florida before a crowd of 2,848 at Petersen Events Center.

The Gators, a quality team from the Southeastern Conference, were supposed to provide the Panthers with their first real test of the season, but it is clear they had no answer for Sims -- whose ability to slash through the Gators' defense made the Panthers' offense go -- and couldn't handle the Panthers' size, defensive pressure and physical style of play.

"We had a lot of problems and one was our effort," Florida coach Amanda Butler said. "Pitt just kicked our butt."

Berenato had a smile from ear to ear after the game and said she was excited with her team's effort, but was especially excited to see Sims, who missed all of last season except for a few minutes in the opener with various leg injuries, running the offense again.

"One thing that Florida wasn't prepared for was Jania Sims," Berenato said. "She was just fabulous, just unbelievable on the court on both the defensive end and on the offensive end taking it inside and outside.

"And when you have a true point guard out there, she is like a coach on the floor. It is the intangibles, she is the one who knows when to speed it up or pull it back and slow it down. It makes a world of difference to have her out there."

Sims, who had some spectacular drives to the basket that really gutted the Gators' defense, said that she started to feel like she is back in shape and her legs are back at the end of the opener Tuesday, but last night it seemed just like old times for her.

"My wheels are starting to roll now," Sims said. "I have to do a lot of things before the game to get warmed up but once I am warmed up, I'm feeling good."

Berenato added: "Right now, I don't think her wheels have caught up to her engine, she thinks perhaps they have, but I think it is a work in progress. But I think every day, she is getting better and I'm telling you, by January, watch out."

While Sims' return to form was a part of the story for the Panthers' offense, the other was the emergence of junior Taneisha Harrison as a legitimate scoring threat as she scored a career-high 25 points on 9-of-12 shooting, including 4-for-5 from the 3-point range.

Pitt also got 10 points and 11 rebounds from junior Chelsea Cole, 11 points from Shayla Scott and 10 points and seven rebounds from Kate Popovec.

But as impressive as the Panthers -- who blew the game open early, led by 23 at the half and by as many as 39 in the second half -- were on offense, defensively they were even more impressive.

Pitt held the Gators (1-2), a good outside shooting team that relies on the 3-pointer, to 28 percent from 3-point range (7-for-25) and only a late flurry by Florida got the number that high as Florida missed its first 12 3-pointers and was 1 for 17 at one point.

Check out Ray Fittipaldo's Pitt B-Ball blog and Paul Zeise's Pitt Stop videos about football exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.