Anthony Jaskulski, Notre Dame News, Pittsburgh News

PANTHERS FALL TO NOTRE DAME, 50-45 IN BIG EAST QUARTERS

By Anthony Jaskulski

New York, NY–Simple basketball is all it took.

Simple basketball is what changed the momentum.

And simple basketball is what separated Pittsburgh from a Thursday night win.

In the third Big East quarterfinal game of the day, the Pitt Panthers (24-7, 13-5) were dominated on easy cutters to the basket, give-and-go plays and inside buckets. A simple style offense that helped push Notre Dame (22-10, 11-7) to a 50-45 win at Madison Square Garden.

Pittsburgh’s loss was just the sixth by a No. 2 seed in its first Big East tournament game.

Notre Dame, who connected on 52.9% from the field (18 of 34) set a team high in a Big East tournament game. They scored 20 of those points in the paint, including great help from center Luke Harangody, who tied for a team-high 12 points for the Fighting Irish.

Harangody did not play in the Feb. 24 meeting between the Panthers and Notre Dame in South Bend. The Fighting Irish won that game, 68-53.

“You know, obviously we’re disappointed in the loss,” said Coach Jamie Dixon. “It’s a close game that came down to the last possessions. And we just didn’t get it done. They seemed to make shots at the end of the clock and they executed well. And we need to do a better job.”

The Panthers had a golden opportunity to tie or take the lead, holding the ball with less than 30 seconds left, facing a 47-45 deficit.

A Jermaine Dixon acrobatic layup attempt fell into the hands of Harangody, who was fouled by Gary McGhee with just 15 seconds left. The senior center hit both free throws for the Irish and took the commanding 49-45 lead.

“This is just one of those games that we have to learn from,” said Gilbert Brown, who finished with four turnovers and just three points. “This is something we have to overcome. We made mistakes and went let them get away with too much. In the end, when you make mistakes and give up easy shots, you almost always lose.”

Dixon finished with 10 points and five rebounds, while his counterpart, guard Ashton Gibbs, finished with just four points, going 2 of 4 from the field in 33 minutes of play.

Notre Dame, who shot an incredible 13 of 21 (61.9%) from the field in the first half—with 9 of those field goals from the paint—went into the break only up by three points, thanks to the tenacious play of Brad Wanamaker, who scored seven of the Panthers’ last eight points before the half.

“I think we did a good job,” said Wanamaker, who finished with a game-high 16 points, going 5 of 11 from the field. “We missed some lay-ups we should have made, and didn’t execute on the plays we should have, and we didn’t score the points we needed.”

Holding the Panthers to just 45 total points today, Notre Dame turned in its best defensive effort in 21 Big East tournament games.

“I thought we really defended the last seven minutes to win the game, because they defended us,” said Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey. “We couldn’t get much offensively, so it was going to be us defensively to win. And I thought we were fabulous on that end of the floor.”

Notre Dame is currently on a six game winning streak, and will face the winner of the 9 PM quarterfinal game between Cincinnati and West Virginia.

As for Pittsburgh, who will leave after just one day of play in the Big East tournament for the second consecutive year, focusing on the big one, the NCAA tournament, is the top priority now.

“It hurts,” said Brown. “You always want to come on top, and you always want to be the victorious one. Sometimes you make mistakes and you’re losing. The only thing you can do now is work harder and get ready for the NCAA tournament.”

“This is a game we have to look past,” said Gibbs. “We can’t beat ourselves up about this one. The NCAA tournament is here, and we need to look forward to making better decisions, and learning how to make the easy shots, and stop the easy shots, and easy looks that we give out defensively.”

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Anthony Jaskulski has been writing about Big East sports and particularly college basketball at all levels for several years now. “Young A’’s” sublime literary gems can be found in the pages of the Pittsburgh Sports Report and in his own college hoops website The Pittsburgh Paint along with other publications (including this online destination where Anthony has brought outstanding coverage of the AAU scene over the last few summers.

We encourage you to check out Anthony’s site, while enjoying the coverage he will help bring to NBE readers this week from New York City.
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