SOUTH BEND, Ind. - In the middle of the week, following a 24-point loss to SMU, Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry said his team, program and brief tenure had hit “rock bottom.”

Saturday afternoon, in front of 6,489 in Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, Ind., Pitt gave the Irish a hand up.

Unable to get stops late and allowing 46 second-half points, the Panthers (16-11, 7-9 Atlantic Coast Conference) saw their thin NCAA Tournament hopes suffer a crushing blow, a 76-72 loss, to a physically-diminished Irish team (12-15 and 6-10).

ND pushed its edge in the all-time series to 40-32, including 22-11 in Purcell Pavilion.

“We did some good things the last two games,” Pitt head coach Jeff Capel said of wins over Miami and Syracuse, “then we came out here today, and again, I don't think it was anything with effort, but we didn't play, with the intelligence and commitment and discipline defensively, especially, that we needed to, and then we had some really inopportune turnovers offensively.”

A fragile Irish offense that hadn’t scored more than 63 points in two of its last four games was even more compromised with the loss of two starters – guard Braeden Shrewsberry, a 14-point scorer, because of an abdomen injury, and guard Matt Allocco, a 9-point scorer, with a wrist injury.

In a game that included nine ties and 12 lead changes, serious Pitt defensive breakdowns started swirling around the seven-minute mark.

After Pitt’s Cameron Corhen made one of two free throws to tie the game at 54 with 7:10 to play, Notre Dame went on a 13-2 run, 10 of those coming on drives in the lane, to forge a 67-56 lead with 2:43 to play.

“We had a couple of good days, really good days of practice and preparation, but we didn't do some of the things that we worked on in practice in real time today and that's where it counts,” Capel said. “In real time, we have to do a better job of being able to stay in front of a guy, to not give up a straight-line drive. I think the first six points (of the game) came on layups - just our inability to guard on straight-line drives. We have to do a much better job.”

The Panthers, the best free throw shooting team in the ACC and 11th in the country at 78.89% coming in, went just 7-for-14 in the second half and finished 11-for-18 (61.1%).

Still, they gave themselves a chance with a rush of late offense.

Down seven with 29 seconds to play, Ishmael Leggett, who led the Panthers in scoring with 21 on 8-for-14 shooting, fired off a 3-point attempt from the left wing that bounced off the rim three times and fell through.

Another 3-pointer from him six seconds later got the Panthers to within three at 72-69.

The Irish, who have had their share of issues with late leads, never opened the door when the Panthers went into foul mode.

J.R. Konieczny, a four-point scorer and 66% free throw shooter, went 6-for-6 over the final 38 seconds and finished with 10 points. And leading scorer Markus Burton, who averages 21 a game, had 20 despite a 2-for-8 showing from the arc. His last two points came from the line with 22 seconds to go.

The final 14 seconds held a little more drama.

Corhen, who had 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting, went to the line with 14.8 left. He hit the first and missed the second, but Brandin Cummings tipped in the miss to make it 74-72 with eight seconds left.

Notre Dame then fumbled an inbounds pass and a struggle for a loose ball under the Pitt basket wound up with a tie-up. The possession arrow favored ND and on the second chance, the Irish got the ball in to Konieczny who was fouled and hit the free throws to put the game away with 5.7 seconds to play.

There were a lot of good moments offensively for Pitt, which shot 63% in the first half and 50.9% for the game, including 35.3% on threes.

There was balance with Jaland Lowe scoring 13, though he was just 5-for-13 from the floor, and 11 from Guillermo Diaz Graham, who went 3-for-5 on threes but a surprising 0-for-3 from the line where he shoots 75%.

Notre Dame got 21 from 6-9 Tae Davis, who went 8-for-11 on mostly drives to the basket, but the shock for the Irish and gut punch to Pitt was the performance of seldom used freshman Cole Certa.

Coming in averaging just one point a game, Certa connected on three of four 3-pointers and finished with 12 points, by far his best output of the season.

Pittsburgh’s offense was fine in the first half, something that’s been an issue at times. Prior to Saturday’s game Pitt faced a double-digit halftime deficit in eight of 15 ACC games.

Saturday it was 30-30.

“I thought we should have had a bigger lead at halftime,” said Capel. “Our first half, we did not do a good job of valuing the basketball. Their physicality, getting up and pressuring us, forced us into bad decisions and forced us into eight turnovers in the first half.

“I thought we had a chance to put more points on the board …”

Pitt had only two turnovers in the second half for a total of 10, but the Irish don’t turn teams over often and rank 312 in the country at 10.3 per game.

The Irish had a 28-24 rebounding edge, but Pittsburgh had nine on the offensive side. Corhen, who led with seven, had three of those.

Lowe had four of the teams nine assists, well under the club’s 13.7 average.

Time is running out on the Panthers and they’ll need a huge week with a Tuesday game at home against Georgia Tech and a March 1 meeting at Louisville.