Panthers Defeated By Notre Dame In Home Finale On Monday

Monday, February 22

Pittsburgh, Pa.

8:00 PM

Pitt

5-11,3-10ACC

University of Notre Dame

9-8,7-6ACC

Notre Dame

Pittsburgh

Photo by: Alex Mowrey/Pitt Athletics

Panthers Defeated By Notre Dame In Home Finale On Monday

2/22/2021 11:16:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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PITTSBURGH – The Pitt women's basketball team (5-11, 3-10 ACC) dropped their home finale on Monday night to the visiting Notre Dame Fighting Irish by the score of 59-48. The Panthers shot just 32.8% from the floor as the offense wasn't able to get things going without starting point guard Dayshanette Harris.

Monday's game marked the 14^th annual Pink the Pete game for the Pitt women's basketball team as they raised awareness of breast cancer. Prior to the game, the Panthers honored Jodi Hummert, a staff member at Pitt, with her own pink jersey and flowers as she won her battle with breast cancer earlier this year.

"I was disappointed with our energy and the way we came out tonight," said head coach Lance White. "We have prided ourselves all year on our ability to play hard, and it is not that I didn't think we played very hard, it was just searching for those people that we thought were going to give it their all on the court. But overall, I thought our freshmen came in and really provided us with a spark tonight."

The Irish opened the scoring with a triple but Gabbie Green responded quickly with a triple of her own to tie the game early on. Amber Brown finished off a pretty pass from Jayla Everett to make the score 7-5 in favor of the Irish at the first media timeout. Rita Igbokwe and Everett finished off the scoring in the first quarter as Pitt entered the second trailing 13-9. The Panthers had a season-high four first quarter blocks including a pair by Igbokwe.

The Irish were able to push their lead out to 10 early in the second quarter before Liatu King was able to net back-to-back buckets to make the score 23-15 in favor of the visitors at the media timeout. The Panthers began to fight back late in the second quarter as Taisha Exanor drained a deep triple and Cynthia Ezeja finished off an offensive rebound layup to get Pitt within five, 25-20. The Irish however, responded with the final five points of the half to take the 30-20 lead into the locker room.

Both teams picked up the defense early in the third quarter as Exanor finished off a layup and Tracey Hueston sank a pair of free throws to send the game to the media timeout in the third with Notre Dame leading 36-24. Hueston made a layup and Sandrine Clesca hit a jumper in the lane to cut the deficit to eight, 36-28. The Irish responded with a 7-3 run to close out the quarter and take the 43-31 lead into the fourth.

The Irish pushed their lead out to 17, 48-31, early in the fourth to force Pitt to call a timeout. Out of the timeout, the Panthers responded with eight straight points as Destiny Strother netted back-to-back three-pointers and Brown knocked down a jumper to make the score 48-39 in favor of Notre Dame at the media timeout. The Panthers continued to battle down the stretch of the game but couldn't get any closer than nine as they fell 59-48 in their regular season home finale.

Everett led the Panthers in scoring as she netted 10 points, four rebounds and three assists across 37 minutes of work. The junior has now scored in double figures in six straight games for the Panthers. Brown finished off her night with seven points, four rebounds and three assists while Strother came off the bench and added six points on a pair of triples.

The Pitt freshmen combined to net 16 points off the bench as Clesca and Exanor each netted five points while Hueston finished with four points and a career-high five rebounds. Exanor also tied a career-high with four rebounds, three offensive.

As a team, Pitt was held to 32.8% from the floor while the Irish shot 37.3% overall. The Irish went 10-for-13 from the free throw line while Pitt went just 3-for-15. Pitt was outrebounded 43-40 but they won the battle of second chance points 14-6 as they totaled 15 offensive rebounds.

Notre Dame was led offensively by freshman Maddy Westbeld who netted 20 points and 11 rebounds while Destinee Walker added 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals in the win.

PITT NOTES
Team

With the loss, Pitt falls to 4-30 all-time against Notre Dame including a 2-15 mark in games played in Pittsburgh.
The Panthers grabbed 40 rebounds in the loss, their 13^th game this season with at least 40 rebounds.
Pitt had 15 offensive rebounds, their ninth straight game with 15+ offensive boards.

Jayla Everett

Everett finished off her night with 10 points, four rebounds, three assists and a block across 37 minutes of work.
The junior went 4-for-11 from the floor and 2-for-7 from behind the arc in the loss.
She has now netted at least two triples in 14 games this season.
She has scored in double figures in six straight games and 13 games total this season for the Panthers. She has 45 career games with 10+ points scored.
37 minutes played are a season-high for the junior who has 13 games this season with 30+ minutes played and 39 across her career.

NEXT UP

Pitt hits the road on Thursday afternoon as they head down Raleigh, NC to take on #2 NC State. Thursday's game will tip at 4:00 pm on Regional Sports Networks (AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh).

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