The Pitt women's basketball team will step way up in class in terms of competition tonight when the Panthers (1-0) play host to Southeastern Conference contender Florida.

And the Gators (1-1) are likely to have chips on their shoulders after coming off a 66-62 loss to No. 13 Florida State.

Florida, which was an NCAA tournament team last season and is expected to be one again this season, beat Pitt, 90-83, in Gainesville in December. Nine players return from that Florida team, which won 24 games, including a first-round game in the NCAA tournament before losing in the second round to national champion Connecticut.

The Gators are athletic and quick and shoot the ball extremely well, particularly from the 3-point range. Pitt coach Agnus Berenato said they are one of the best teams the Panthers will face at putting pressure on opposing offenses as they run a variety of full-court and three-quarter-court presses.

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Scouting report

• Matchup: Pitt (1-0) vs. Florida (1-1), 7 p.m. today, Petersen Events Center.
• Radio: WBGG-AM (970).
• Pitt: Is 1-1 vs. Gators. ... Beat North Florida, 61-35, in opener. ... Is 2-14 against Southeast Conference teams. ... Forward Chelsea Cole scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds in opener. ... Point guard Jania Sims only had two points in the opener but dished out seven assists.
• Florida: Beat Stetson in opener, 85-63, then lost to No. 13 Florida State, 66-62. ... Made 16 3-pointers in two games. ... Made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament last season. ... Leading scorer is Jordan Jones (15 ppg).
• Hidden stat:Pitt outrebounded North Florida, 44-27.

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It is not the ideal matchup for a second game of a season for a team like Pitt, which is fielding a rebuilt roster and will likely struggle a bit as it develops some chemistry.

Berenato, however, sees it the other way: She is eager to find out exactly how far her team has progressed and how far it has to improve.

"We got better from Seton Hill [in an exhibition game] to North Florida, and now we need to get much better from North Florida to Florida," she said.

Berenato said the Gators look as if they are a little bit ahead of the Panthers in terms of coming together.

"I watched their Florida State game and it was a great, great women's basketball game," Berenato said. "It was played at such a high level, it looked like a game you'd see maybe in February or in March but not this early in the season."

Pitt will be hard-pressed to defend the 3-point shot as that is the bread and butter of the Florida offense. Last season, Florida set a school record with 221 3-pointers (connecting on 35 percent of its 3-point attempts). This season, the Gators already have made 16 3-pointers, although against the Seminoles they made only 9 of 31 (29 percent).

Pitt will have to extend its defense to try to minimize those open, long-range shots.

"Not just threes, deep threes," Berenato said. "They have no problem stepping back and hitting them from way downtown, and that's something we have to be aware of. And we worked on it all this week -- stepping out and even if you think someone is too far out to shoot it to understand, they probably aren't. Jordan Jones is a fabulous shooter and she'll step way out there. And perhaps the most impressive thing to me is [power forward] Sharielle Smith will step out and hit them as well. They are all good shooters, so there is a lot to worry about in terms of trying to stop them."

One area in which Pitt will have an advantage is size: The Panthers have four players in their starting lineup 6 feet or taller, while the Gators have only one player on the roster taller than 6 feet.

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