Effort isn't the main issue for Notre Dame men's basketball.
The Irish played until the final whistle in their 70-60 loss at Pittsburgh on Saturday, which marked their sixth consecutive loss and first loss to the Panthers since March 9, 2019.
Junior forward Tae Davis picked up his man in full-court and applied enough defensive pressure to force a turnover with 29 seconds left, and freshman guard Braeden Shrewsberry drilled a 3-pointer three seconds later to cut into the lead — but it was too little and too late.
Notre Dame could've done all the work it wanted until the final buzzer sounded, but that wouldn't make up for two facets of the game that plagued ND in the first 39 minutes against Pittsburgh: lack of offensive production and trouble defending the 3-point line.
"I mean, we competed. It's hard to slow this team down when they get hot in certain moments," head coach Micah Shrewsberry said. "We've been a good defensive team for the whole season, but we haven't been the last three or four games."
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After giving up only four 3-pointers in its loss to Florida State on Jan. 13, the Irish had allowed an average of nine made 3-pointers in their previous four games before Pittsburgh. ND's defense opened up the game with strong closeouts and successful rotations — which resulted in the Panthers shooting 0-of-9 from the 3-point line to start the contest.
In the second half, freshman guard Markus Burton tied the score at 30 apiece with a 3-pointer, but the Irish suddenly found themselves down nine — their largest deficit to that point — after giving up three consecutive 3-pointers to Pitt. The Panthers' leading scorers, senior forward Blake Hinson and freshman guard Carlton Carrington, combined for 33 points on 7-of-12 shooting from beyond the arc.
"They moved some pieces and moved some parts," Shrewsberry said of Pittsburgh's sudden success from deep. "I think they did a good job of finding those guys with passes, kick across, pick and roll and everything else. Credit to their guards and the unselfishness [with which] they played."
The head-to-head matchup between Burton and Carrington, two freshman guards who rank inside the top 25 overall scorers per game in the ACC, was hampered due to foul trouble. Burton picked up two fouls quickly and sat most of the first half, while Carrington had five total fouls and played a season-low 20 minutes.
Burton led the Irish with 17 points, while Davis rounded out ND's double-digit scorers with 16 points, three shy of his career-high. Burton has scored at least 15 points in eight of Notre Dame's 11 conference games, but Shrewsberry was more impressed by another element of Burton's game against the Panthers.
"He's just trying to take what the defense gives him," Shrewsberry said. "You know, he's on the top of everybody's scouting report and he's attacking, [and] he's playing through physicality. He's getting to the free throw line ... three assists [and] no turnovers is great growth grow from him. I think the last two games he's played a great floor game for us."
Lack of offensive juice rears its head again
Notre Dame experienced multiple scoring droughts throughout the game, including a nine-minute stretch in the second half in which the Irish scored six points — while the Panthers scored 21 points in that same span.
Sophomore guard J.R Konieczny, junior guard Julian Roper II and sophomore forward Kebba Njie — all of whom logged somewhere between 20 to 30 minutes — finished a combined 2-of-14 from the field. Braeden Shrewsberry's four-game streak of scoring in double figures was snapped as he was held to eight points in 26 minutes.
Freshman guard Logan Imes received his first career start and finished with four points and a team-high six rebounds.
Pittsburgh trotted out a starting lineup with an average height of 6-foot-5, while Notre Dame's starting five had an average height of 6-2. The difference in size didn't stop the Irish from being aggressive in their penetration, which resulted in outscoring the Panthers 28-22 in the paint. It marked Notre Dame's highest point total in that area since the Duke game on Jan. 6.
"We struggle to score in the paint. We've got to get easy baskets somehow," Shrewsberry said. "We're just trying to focus more on ball movement and attacking closeouts. We felt like we could do it and did a pretty decent job at it."
Notre Dame returns to action on Wednesday, at Duke (16-5, 7-3 ACC). The Blue Devils won the first matchup of the season series 67-59.
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