PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Coming off a first losing streak of the season, dropping two straight games, Pitt just plain stunk Saturday night against Notre Dame, losing 84-58 at the Petersen Events Center.
"Really, really deplorable performance by us," said Pitt head coach Jeff Capel. "Embarrassing in every sense of the word."
Fighting Irish hit 4 of its first 5 three pointers, shot 57% FG in the first half and the Pitt defense only forced two turnovers in the first half.
Didn't get much better in the second half as Notre Dame would end up shooting 56% overall, 54% from three, with 20 assists to seven turnovers.
"We didn't play with the necessary energy," Capel said. "We didn't play any defense all game. We weren't connected on that end. The things we talked about that we worked on in practice and tried to do to prepare for this game. We came out and did nothing in terms of execution on the defensive end."
Among those who particularly struggled was junior point guard Xavier Johnson. He was 2-6 from the floor with a pair of turnovers and disqualified after a technical foul gave him his fifth.
"This is not about X," Capel said. "We were bad. We were bad collectively as a group. One person wasn't bad. Everyone on our team was bad. It's correcting everyone. Not just X. He was not the only one out of control. We were out of control."
Justin Champagnie led the Panthers with 19 points and 11 rebounds, shooting 8 of 20 from the floor as the team shot 31.5% FG.
"I'm worried about practice," Capel said of moving forward now 8-5 overall, 4-4 in the ACC. "That's all I'm worried about is us getting together on Monday and practicing. We have a lot of work to do."
"We have to get our mojo back on both sides of the court."
How does he think his team will bounce back?
"I don't know," Capel said. "It's a great question. I don't know. We will see."
Up Next
The Panthers now host a Virginia Tech team Wednesday that is 13-3 overall and 7-2 and coming off turning an eight point halftime deficit into a 65-51 win over 8th ranked Virginia. Hokies have four players averaging double figures and 7 players over 7 and a half points a game. Panthers pregame starts at 6 with Andrew Fillipponi and former Panther Julius Page with tip at 7 on 93.7 The Fan.
