SOUTH BEND. – It was Senior Day for both Notre Dame men’s basketball grads and Glenn & Stacey Murphy Head Coach Mike Brey on Wednesday night inside Purcell Pavilion. With that said, the Fighting Irish (11-19, 3-16) cooked up some magic to send Brey out on a high note in his final home game, knocking off No. 25/25 Pittsburgh (21-9, 14-5) via the score 88-81.
Five Irish finished in double figures, led by a season high 20 points from Marcus Hammond. Cormac Ryan matched him point-for-point with 20 as well. Both Trey Wertz and Nate Laszewski scored double-digit points in the second half to finish with 14 each. Then Dane Goodwin rounded out the double-digit scorers with 12. Also note, Ven-Allen Lubin tallied eight points.
The Irish led at 14 at the half and built a lead as large as 20 with 12 minutes remaining in the game. Pitt, trailing to rally for an ACC regular-season title, cut it to as low as five points, but a Ryan breakaway dunk was the exclamation point on the victory.
How It Happened
Notre Dame jumped out to a 15-9 lead at the 15:54 media timeout thanks to a hot start from Cormac Ryan. The graduate guard recorded three three-point plays to score a quick nine points in the opening minutes.
Pitt retaliated with a swift 7-0 run over the next two minutes, claiming a 16-15 lead. However, that lead would only last for 30 seconds and that was their only lead of the entire half.
Marcus Hammond inspired the next offensive spurt for the Irish, registering 11 of the team’s next 19 points, giving ND a 34-28 lead at the 3:12 media timeout.
All-in-all, the Irish ended the first half on a 14-2 scoring spree to garner a 42-28 halftime lead. What was great about the run was the different players stepping up: a Wertz three, a Hammond three, a Laszewski layup, a Ryan and-one and a Goodwin three.
The Irish were certainly feeling it from three as half their field goals for the half were from beyond the arc – seven three-pointers to be exact. At the midway point, both Ryan (12 points) and Hammond (13 points) were in double figures already.
Notre Dame made five of its first seven shots to start the second half to keep the momentum. Five different players contributed to the five field goals to maintain a lead at 53-36 at 15:26.
At 11:49, Pitt Head coach Jeff Capel was called for a technical foul. The Irish used that to their advantage as both Goodwin and Laszewski knocked down some free throws to build a 20-point lead at 61-41.
Over the course of the next seven minutes, Notre Dame would hover around a 16-point lead. At the four-minute media timeout, the Irish were up 74-60, but both Goodwin and Lubin had fouled out and Wertz and soon Hammond had four fouls.
Matt Zona, who just checked into the game, made an immediate impact with a huge offensive board that led to two Laszewski free throws, which stopped a Pitt 7-0 run. Follow that up with a great drive, move and reverse layup from Ryan under the basket – it was then 78-65 ND with 2:22 left.
Pitt cut it to eight after a three-pointer at 1:14, but Ryan calmly responded on the free-throw line to make it double-digits once again at 82-72 with 69 seconds left. A Pitt three-pointer with 38 seconds left then cut it to five points – the closest it had been all half. Wertz then went to the line a mere three seconds later and converted two critical free throws.
A big defensive stand on the next possession led to an exclamation point dunk from Ryan – 88-79 ND with 14 seconds left. Mere moments later, victory Irish!
Up Next
The Irish look to ride this momentum into its final road swing of the season. First, Notre Dame travels to Clemson on Saturday to wrap the regular season. Then, the Irish will bus to Greensboro to begin the ACC Tournament on Tuesday, March 7.
— ND –