Tamed: Notre Dame crushes Panthers

Tulyah Gaines scored 13 points, Lindsay Schrader added 12 and No. 16 Notre Dame toppled No. 15… Tulyah Gaines scored 13 points, Lindsay Schrader added 12 and No. 16 Notre Dame toppled No. 15 Pitt, 81-66, at the Joyce Center in South Bend, Ind.

Notre Dame (18-5, 6-3 Big East) scored 38 bench points and forced 17 turnovers to hand the Panthers their first road defeat since losing, 51-49, to Duke at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 8.

Pitt (18-5, 8-2) shot just 31 percent from the field.

Star guard Shavonte Zellous was 5 for 22 and starting point guard Mallorie Winn was 2 of 13. Winn was 1 of 9 from 3-point range.

“A lot of pressure,” Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw told the Associated Press in reference to how Notre Dame’s defense thrived.

“We got aggressive with it.”

The Panthers made 14 of their 27 foul shots, and trailed by as many as 16 points.

Notre Dame is 17-1 all-time against Pitt.

The Panthers first defeated Notre Dame last season, 71-62, at the Petersen Events Center.

The Fighting Irish won against a ranked opponent for the first time in five seasons.

“They made free throws and made layups and Pitt missed layups and missed free throws,” Pitt coach Agnus Berenato told the AP.

“That was the game. Bottom line, you have to make layups and free throws.”

Despite a sprained ankle, junior Pitt center Marcedes Walker had 18 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks.

Zellous finished with 16 points and nine rebounds.

Xenia Stewart had 16 points and seven rebounds.

Gaines struggled mightily from the field, making just two of her eight shots.

But the 5-foot-7 senior was 9 of 10 from the foul line.

Schrader was 6 of 14, and had eight rebounds and three steals.

Melissa Lechlitner, Devereaux Peters and Becca Bruszewski each scored in double figures off the bench. Notre Dame is 7-0 when it has five players score in double digits.

“That’s what’s so great about this team,” Lechlitner told the AP.

“We’re so balanced.”

In a game with six tied scores and three lead changes, Pitt’s 31 second-chance points were not enough to overcome the great disparity in bench production.

An 11-0 run by Notre Dame in the first half had an impact on the rest of the game.

During that span, Pitt failed to score for seven minutes, missing all 10 of its shots.

“This was just a critical win for us,” McGraw told the AP.

“We absolutely had to have this game to help us in the Big East standings.”

Notre Dame moved into a fifth-place tie with Syracuse.

Both teams are one and a half games behind Pitt, which has sole possession of fourth place.

The Panthers play at No. 12 West Virginia on Wednesday at 7 p.m.