WATCH: Pitt blows late lead in OT, loses to Notre Dame on last-second 3-pointer
It was a huge and wild day and an amazing way to wrap up 2016 for college hoops
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1 min read
On the final day of 2016, college basketball on a Saturday afternoon felt like a Thursday in March.
Big-time outcomes, random upsets, bizarre sequences and a whole lot of chaos.
Lost in the mix, perhaps, was the Notre Dame-Pitt game. Both teams had plenty to prove to start ACC play. Notre Dame's been good but faltered against superior competition. Pitt's got a new coach, Kevin Stallings, and no one's quite sure if this team is NCAA Tournament material or not.
A home win over Notre Dame would go a long way to proving that case. But Notre Dame was in need of a road win. It got it. And barely. Thanks to Steve Vasturia's last-second 3-pointer in overtime. Here it is. With 2.5 seconds left, the winner.
Big time shot by a big time competitor!
— Ryan Ayers (@NDRyanAyers) December 31, 2016
Steve with the "fly by" leading to a last second game winner.
1-0 in ACC play heading into 2017! pic.twitter.com/Iv5XXSAPF7
ND takes it 78-77. The Fighting Irish are now 12-2. Their only losses have come against undefeated Villanova and one-loss Purdue. Not bad at all. Vasturia finished with 15 points. Bonzie Colson had a team-high 21 for ND.
For Pitt, it's now 11-3, but it does have a road win over Maryland. That's a big one. Jamel Artis (who gave Pitt a 77-75 lead) and Michael Young are on the short list for most underrated 1-2 punches in college hoops. They each put up 25 points in the loss. It's a rough loss, because Pitt had a 75-70 lead late into OT.
Though both teams have home games upcoming, it's not going to get any easier. Notre Dame will bring in Louisville, while Pitt has to deal with an angry Virginia team that was shockingly upset by Florida State on Saturday. Let's have a lot more of this chaos in 2017, yes?
