Notre Dame @ Pittsburgh preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 6, 2018 ) Pittsburgh 64, Notre Dame 67

Two of the ACC’s basement dwellers play their final regular-season games as second-to-last place Notre Dame visits last-place Pittsburgh. The Fighting Irish will be looking to snap a six-game losing streak, while the Panthers will be hoping to put an end to a 13-game skid.

Notre Dame’s Nate Laszewski missed a game-tying free throw with 3.1 seconds left after Clemson called a timeout to ice the freshman and the Tigers wound up sneaking out of South Bend, Ind. with a 64-62 win on Wednesday evening. "I feel for Nate," Irish coach Mike Brey told reporters afterward. "He made the tough one - the first one's the tough one - but he's going to be a heck of a player for us.” The young Panthers have faded hard down the stretch this season and did the same on Wednesday evening at Miami as the Hurricanes pulled away late for a 76-63 win. "That's how a lot of our games have been," Pitt coach Jeff Capel told the media after the game. "We've been right there. We haven't been mentally strong enough to make the necessary plays."

TV: Noon ET, ACC Network

ABOUT NOTRE DAME (13-17, 3-14 ACC): John Mooney led the Irish in scoring with 18 against the Tigers while adding a career-high 20 rebounds and a team-high five assists. Mooney has compiled 13 double-doubles in ACC action - the most since Tim Duncan’s 15 in 1996-97 - and his 12.1 rebounds in league games is tops in any major conference. Notre Dame was without third-leading scorer D.J. Harvey (10.7 points) against Clemson after he suffered a hamstring injury in practice; he may miss Saturday’s game as well, according to Brey.

ABOUT PITTSBURGH (12-18, 2-15): The Panthers used an 8-0 scoring run in the second half to get within one point of the Hurricanes at 54-53 but that was as close as they would get as Miami closed the game out with ease. Turnovers were a huge issue for Pitt as it gave the ball away 15 times - leading to 20 points for the Hurricanes - as was free-throw shooting as the Panthers missed eight of their final 10 attempts. Senior Jared Wilson-Frame led the team with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting against Miami, while Xavier Johnson and Kene Chukwuka each added 10.

TIP-INS

1. Notre Dame leads the all-time series 34-30, including wins in the last three meetings.

2. The Fighting Irish average 36.6 rebounds while the Panthers collect 36.5 per game, good for eighth and ninth in the conference, respectively.

3. Wilson-Frame is averaging 13.8 points over his last 13 games and will be one of three Pitt seniors honored before the game.

PREDICTION: Notre Dame 66, Pittsburgh 63