PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Three times against Power Five teams the Panthers held a second half lead, in many games with little time left. Yet another one-point loss, Tuesday night 68-67 to Notre Dame.
All-ACC senior guard Prentiss Hubb hit a runner with 5.6 seconds left to take the one point lead and eventually won as Jamarius Burton's runner missed off-iron at the buzzer.
"Heck of a game, heck of a shot by Hubb at the end," said Pitt head coach Jeff Capel. "We did some really good things in this game and we put ourselves in a position to win. We had some breakdowns in the second half that they really exploited. We can't afford to have those breakdowns because they make you pay."
Capel pointed to a play where Oni Ezeakudo turned it over when they were up eight and they were trying to get the ball into John Hugley, who the Fighting Irish were having a hard time guarding. A missed opportunity to build on a lead and then the last few minutes of the second half, the dam burst.
"They chased us off the arc until the last 5 minutes, then we finally got some looks," said Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey. "It took 35 minutes to loosen their defense up."
Notre Dame made five of it's 10 three pointers in the game in the last seven minutes.
"They make you pay with threes," Capel explained. "We didn't switch when we were supposed to switch at times. That led to penetration which is one of the ways they get threes. Our ball screen defense wasn't tight at times, which led to penetration which led to over help, which led to them getting threes."
"Did we play well enough to win, we did, but we can't afford to have those breakdowns."
For the third time this season, an opportunity for a quality win slides bye. And like Minnesota and Virginia before, this one again by one point.
"It's tough, but you have to teach," Capel said. "We are young. We have a lot of inexperience at this level and it's hard to win at this level. You look at that team and they have six seniors that play and one freshman."
"We have to keep showing up every day. We got a big bounce against St.
John's. It didn't happen tonight."
"It's real tough, but it shows we can compete with anybody," Hugley said. "We just got to lock in more on defense. The last four minutes of the game stick together stops so we can come up with the win."
"I've told our guys," Capel said. "I think we can win every game we play. We can lose every game, that is the line. We have to understand the things that are necessary, that are required to win these types of games."
"They you have to do it every possession. That difficult, it's hard. Winning is hard, at any level, especially in our league."
Sharp shooters
Not only did Notre Dame make six threes in the second half, they made their last five attempted. The Fighting Irish also made Pitt pay for fouling going 16 of 17 from the free throw line.
Yale transfer Paul Atkinson, Jr. led the Irish with 16 points, Hubb with 15 points, freshman Blake Wesley 12 points and Dane Goodwin with 11.
Pitt shot fairly well, 45% field goals, 36% from three and 73% free throws. Hugley went 8 of 9 from the foul line finishing with 18 points. Jamarius Burton with 15 points. Mouhamadou Gueye 14 points, five rebounds, three assists and a pair of blocks. Femi Odukale played 39 minutes finishing with 13 points including three, three-point plays.
Hugley growth
At times the 6' 9", 280 pound Hugley was unstoppable. Brey called him a bear down low and said it felt like he had 40 points. While acknowledging his performance, Capel expects a lot from his sophomore center.
"I've been fortunate to be around a lot of very good players," Capel said. "The one thing they have in common is they work. You don't see the work. They make it look that easy, but it's not. They work at it. They have a discipline about them every day how they showed up to work."
"John has a chance to become a really good player. He has to learn that. There is a big-time investment that has to be made to do that."
Up Next
Pitt is scheduled to play at Virginia Tech Saturday at 4p. Stay tuned, the Hokies postponed their game Wednesday at North Carolina because of COVID-19 with their program.
