Moving their way up the ranks, the women’s basketball team defeated Pittsburgh 63-47 in another powerful team effort.

This win Tuesday, combined with their win against Syracuse, improved the women’s record to 8-3 in the Big East and 18-4 overall.

Pittsburgh came out strong and took the lead early. However, with seven minutes left in the first half, ’Nova took the lead.

The Wildcats finished the half on top 26-22. The lead was maintained throughout the rest of the game.

The strong Wildcat defense kept the Panthers off the boards. Courtney Mix led the team in rebounds with six. Teammates, Katie Davis and Nicole Druckenmiller each had five.

With the combined defensive efforts, ’Nova kept the Panthers from scoring for 14 straight minutes.

Even stronger offensive efforts helped the ’Cats rack up 63 points.

Trish Juhline put 20 on the board, Mix had 16 points, and Davis and Kelly Nash both tallied 10 points each.

Another game that added to the ’Cats winning streak was Saturday’s game against the Orangewomen, when they defeated them 77-44.

The women’s outside shooting strengths paid off in the game as they took the lead early and kept it the whole game.

The women were two short of the league record for three pointers made in a game, with a tally of 16.

Davis, put seven three pointers on the board, and Kelly Nash added another five. Juhline contributed another 12 points, including two threes from downtown.

The Wildcats led the game 23-18 at halftime, and came out of the locker room stronger than ever, scoring seven straight three-pointers to start the half.

For her efforts in the Syracuse game as well in the game against Boston College, Davis was named Big East Co-Player of the Week. Davis leads the team this season in three-pointers with 62.

She also has accumulated a 15.8 points per game average and has started all 21 games this season.

In the two games against Syracuse and Boston College combined, Davis had 39 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals, and one block.

The women play the Hoyas Thursday night at the Pavilion. Tip-off is at 7 p.m.