The Pittsburgh Panthers fell to a now, 3-16 in the conference, Notre Dame in rough outing that ended 81-88.
It was senior day for the Fighting Irish and head coach Mike Brey’s final home game after 23 seasons in charge of the team, and his team did come out and fight.
Blake Hinson was the main factor keeping Pittsburgh in the game early scoring seven in the first 5 minuets.
The defense and scoring really started to fall apart after that, only shooting 20% from both three and the free point line in the half.
Notre Dame really started to pull away with the game in the the final four minuets of the first half, ending it with a 14-point lead as Pitt couldn’t score a single point in that time.
The going got worse for the Panthers in the second quarter, with ND pulling out to a 20-point lead 8 minuets in to the second half after a Jeff Capel technical foul, for, arguing fouls called from the refs.
The Panthers mounted a couple of pushes in the last 10 minuets of play, but the Irish were up to the task and responded almost every time.
They were able to cut the deficit as close as five in the final 30 seconds, though it was too little too late.
Marcus Hammond and Cormac Ryan were leaders for Notre Dame tonight each putting up a dominant 20 points.
Jamarius Burton, Nelly Cummings, and Nike Sibande all put up 19 points in a valiant comeback attempt as well as Blake Hinson posting a double-double.
The Panthers ended the night 31.8% from three, 55.6% from the line, and 44.3% overall from the floor.
It makes the teams job that much harder to secure the one seed in the ACC as they travel to #16 Miami.
They could’ve locked it up against the seven-game losing streak owners Notre Dame, but instead take the Quad 3 loss to ND which owns a NET rating of 188.