The Pitt basketball season ended with a listless 78-54 loss to Notre Dame on the road. The loss is Pitt's fourth straight to close out the regular season, and the Panthers finish with 11-20 mark on the year. Pitt holds a 6-14 record in ACC play and will begin the ACC Tournament on Tuesday.

Pitt got off to a poor start once again in this one. The Panthers fell behind Notre Dame by a score of 22-10 at the 7:03 mark of the first half. Pitt sophomore center John Hugley picked up two early fouls, and the team struggled for answers on offense without him om the floor. Pitt shot just 30% from the field in the first half, though there was a push to make it 24-17 on an Ithiel Horton made three at the 4:00 mark of the first half. However, Notre Dame stretched the lead to 31-21 at the half.

Notre Dame improved to 15-5 in ACC play, and 22-9 overall and clinched the No. 2 seed in the ACC Tournament with the win. The Irish really started to separate in the second half thanks to some hot outside shooting. Notre Dame made 9 three-point field goals in the second half. Nate Laszewski led the way with 17 points. Cormac Ryan added 15 on five made threes.

Conversely Pitt's outside shooting was woeful. The Panthers finished 3-of-26 behind the arc. Neither Ithiel Horton and Jamarius Burton provided much in this one. The Panthers top outside options were limited to 11 points combined on 4-of-18 shooting. Jeff Capel opted to start Onye Ezeakudo in place of regular point guard Femi Odukale. The move didn't provide much of a spark, and Odukale still played his normal minutes and finished with 6 points and 5 rebounds.

The loss of Hugley proved to be too much for Pitt to overcome. The Panthers leading scorer bounced back in the second half and finished with 13 points, but it was a little too late for Pitt by that point. The Irish outscored the Panthers 47-33 in the second half, with the lead hovering around 20 points for much of the second half.

Mo Gueye continued his strong late season push and provided 13. The bench scored 17 points, aided by Odukale, but Nate Santos did post 7 points after not seeing much action in conference play.

Pitt will head to Brooklyn on Tuesday to begin ACC Tournament play. The Panthers finish the regular season in 12th place, and will likely face 13th seeded Boston College in the 2:00 p.m. game on Tuesday afternoon.