Big East Tournament: Notre Dame still on a roll with Pitt up next
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Notre Dame's Luke Harangody, right, celebrates with teammate Ben Hansbrough during last night's 68-56 win against Seton Hall in the second round of Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York, Wednesday.
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NEW YORK -- Notre Dame easily handled Pitt without its leading scorer two weeks ago. Now the Fighting Irish will face the Panthers with their superstar looking like he's 100 percent healthy again.
Luke Harangody, the Big East Conference's leading scorer who has been slowed by a bone bruise in his knee, scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds Wednesday to lead No. 7 seed Notre Dame past No. 10 seed Seton Hall, 68-56, in a Big East tournament second-round game at Madison Square Garden.
The Irish will face No. 2 seed Pitt at 7 p.m. today in a quarterfinal-round game.
Harangody missed the first game against Pitt, but the Irish handed the Panthers one of their worst losses of the season, 68-53. Notre Dame had an easy time with Pitt because its shooters were able to get open for uncontested shots. The Irish shot 50 percent from the field, 56 percent from 3-point range. They were 10 for 18 from behind the arc and made 10 of their first 13 before cooling off late.
• Game: No. 16 Pitt (24-7) vs. Notre Dame (22-10), 7 p.m. today, Madison Square Garden, New York.
• TV, radio, Internet: ESPN, WWSW-FM (94.5), WBGG-AM (970), www.pittsburghpanthers.com.
• Pitt: Coming off 83-54 victory against Rutgers in regular-season finale. ... No. 2 seed in conference tournament for second year in a row. ... Has won eight of past nine. ... Sophomore G Ashton Gibbs (16.2 ppg, 2.9 rpg) was named the conference's most improved player and second-team all-conference. ... Junior G Brad Wanamaker (12.0 ppg, 5.7 rpg) finished the regular season fourth in the conference with 146 assists.
• Notre Dame: Coming off 68-56 victory against Seton Hall in second-round tournament game. ... Defeated Pitt in only regular-season meeting two weeks ago at Notre Dame. ... Senior Luke Harangody led the Big East in scoring. ... Has won five in a row for the longest winning streak since the 2007-08 season. ... Improved to 5-14 in Big East tournament games.
First Published March 11, 2010 12:00 am
