In welcome re-arrival, Prentiss Hubb helps Notre Dame win at Pitt
Prentiss Hubb may be a soft-spoken guy off the court.
But after a tough start to this season, perhaps the Notre Dame senior point guard realized Tuesday that he can’t continue to be so quiet on the court with all-out ACC play up next.
Hubb scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half at Pittsburgh, including a 15-foot baseline game-winning floater with 5.3 seconds left, that lifted Notre Dame (7-5, 1-1 ACC) to a 68-67 win over the Panthers (5-8, 0-2).
With three three-point baskets and the two-point game-winner, Hubb scored 11 of his points in the final 7:18 of the game after Notre Dame trailed 53-45.
In a post-game interview with Fighting Irish Media Radio, Notre Dame assistant coach Ryan Humphrey said Hubb’s breakout night was overdue.
In the six previous games prior to Tuesday, Hubb averaged only 7.0 points and scored double digits only twice.
“We knew it was a matter of time,” Humphrey said. “Prentiss Hubb is too good of a basketball player to have played the way he has been playing. He’s been getting extra work in and I think in our last couple of possessions, it was Notre Dame basketball.”
Notre Dame showcased balanced scoring in this traditional grind-it-out game against Pittsburgh.
Graduate student forward Paul Atkinson Jr. led the Irish with 16 points and eight rebounds.
Despite early foul trouble, freshman guard Blake Wesley tallied 12 points, and senior guard Dane Goodwin added 11 points to round out the four Irish double-digit scorers.
Notre Dame went 16 of 17 from the foul line a game after making 13 of 14 from the stripe Thursday in an 83-73 win over Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
Up next: If the schedule holds together, Notre Dame will welcome No. 2 Duke (11-1) to Purcell Pavilion Saturday at 6 p.m., a couple hours after the completion of the Fiesta Bowl.
A COVID-19 breakout within the Blue Devils program forced the postponement of Duke’s game Wednesday against Clemson. There has been no official determination on whether Saturday’s game will be played.
If so, this will be Notre Dame’s ACC home opener and the final visit to Purcell Pavilion by Duke’s outgoing hall of fame head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
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