Notre Dame pulls away from Panthers

Despite having 5,652 fans trying to cheer them on, the Pitt women’s basketball team was unable… Despite having 5,652 fans trying to cheer them on, the Pitt women’s basketball team was unable to upset Notre Dame (No. 7 ESPN/USA Today, No. 6 AP) Saturday at the Petersen Events Center.

Pitt, who lost 75-47, was done in by one of their worst shooting performances of the season, hitting only 25 percent of its shots from the field. The crowd was the largest to see the Panthers play this season since tickets were only $1 as a part of Pitt’s third annual “Pack the Petersen” event.

“It was the best to have the crowd behind you,” guard Amy Kunich said, despite the loss.

Notre Dame jumped out to a 16-9 lead, but one of Pitt’s smallest players made a big play to keep her team close.

With the shot clock winding down, the 5-foot-6-inch Kunich dribbled frantically at the top of the key. Unable to free herself from her defender, she was forced to heave a desperate, off-balance 3-pointer as the shot clock hit zero.

“We had to at least get a shot at the hoop,” Kunich said. “It was an awkward shot, and as someone mentioned, it was like a hook, but it was a shot. It was kind of mixed in-between.”

All that mattered to Kunich was that it went in.

“It’s still three points,” she said, “It got the crowd into it, it got me into it, and got the some of my teammates excited.”

Unfortunately for the Panthers, Kunich’s three would be as exciting as things would get. Notre Dame outscored the Panthers 24-7 over the remainder of the first half, extending their lead to 40-23 at halftime.

“I thought the first 14 minutes, our team did a phenomenal job of hustle,” head coach Agnus Berenato said. “I thought we out-hustled, out-rebounded. We hit the offensive glass, and got every lose ball, but we did not hit our shots. Again, it was the last seven minutes of the first half that really hurt us,”

Pitt finished the first-half shooting 25.8 percent from the field and 60 percent from the free-throw line. Notre Dame, on the other hand, shot 48.4 percent from the field and 90 percent at the charity stripe.

Things didn’t get much better for the Panthers in the second half. Freshman center Marcedes Walker fouled out with 6:35 remaining in the game, and forward Jennifer Brown joined Walker on the bench after picking up her fifth personal foul less then two minutes later.

Despite fouling out and playing with a pulled hamstring suffered in Wednesday’s loss to Villanova, Walker led the Panthers with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

“Marcedes is a tough matchup for any team,” Irish coach Muffet McGraw said. “We couldn’t handle her one on one. She still played well even after getting in foul trouble.”

Walker wasn’t quiet as positive about her fouls.

“I shouldn’t have gotten two dumb fouls,” Walker said. “I’ve been double-teamed for a while now. I’ve still got to work on it.”

Missing two of their top players, and with the game out of reach, the remaining Panthers were still trying to do the little things.

With less then three minutes remaining, the score 73-41, Pitt turned the ball over, triggering a Notre Dame fast break. Sophomore Brooke Hughes hustled back on defense, and with Notre Dame guard Tulyah Gaines charging straight for her, Hughes tried to plant her feet and draw a foul.

Tulyah and Hughes collided violently, and, unfortunately for Hughes, she was called for a blocking foul. However, her effort did not go unnoticed as she received applause from teammates and fans alike as she bounced to her feet.

“I’ll credit my team,” Berenato said, “They never quit and never stopped. I thought we played really hard. Our shooting was just not good; we have had trouble shooting all year.”

Saturday’s shooting performance was one of the Panthers’ worst of the season. To go along with the 25 percent shooting from the field, the Panthers hit on only 19.2 percents of 3-pointers, and 44.4 percent of their free-throws. As a team, the Irish shot 43.5 percent from the field and 33.3 from 3-point range.

Pitt is now 0-15 all time against Notre Dame. The win was the Irish’s seventh in a row overall, which includes a road victory over three-time defending national champion Connecticut.

The Panthers are back in action next Saturday when they head to New York to take on St. John’s.