NOTRE DAME, Ind. - The stage was set for an upset.

Pitt had Notre Dame on the ropes and seemed destined to end the Fighting Irish's 34-game home winning streak.

All the Panthers had to do was make a couple of plays at the end of the game to notch the first win by an opponent in almost two years at the Joyce Center. But instead of making the plays, Pitt frittered away a late lead and watched in disbelief as the Irish extended their streak.

It was Notre Dame that made the big plays in the final minutes while the Panthers self-destructed. Notre Dame overcame an 11-point second-half deficit to beat Pitt, 82-70, tonight.

"I don't know how it happened," freshman center DeJuan Blair said. "We had it."

It happened with a flurry of Notre Dame 3-pointers and some lapses in judgment by the Panthers over the final 10 minutes of the game. Pitt led 51-40 with 13:53 remaining, but the Irish outscored the Panthers 42-19 from that point forward.

The big blows came in the form of four 3-point shots over a 2 minute, 56 second span. What had been a four-point lead for Pitt turned into a five-point deficit by the time it was over.

"They started some making some tough shots with hands in their faces," senior guard Keith Benjamin said.

And Pitt started to make some questionable plays.

Pitt had three turnovers in 43 seconds to help the Irish along in their comeback. On one of them Sam Young overthrew Gilbert Brown by 15 feet on a misfired home run inbounds pass. On another occasion, Young, who led Pitt with 20 points and eight rebounds, tried a tomahawk dunk and missed.

"They just played smarter than we did," Blair said. "They made smarter plays at the end. We fought hard, but we didn't play smart. We had a couple of dumb plays."

"We didn't make any winning plays," Benjamin said. "We didn't do anything right in the second half when the game was on the line. When you do that, that's usually how you lose."

Pitt (19-7, 7-6) lost two games in a row for the only the sixth time in the past five years and will enter Sunday's game against first-place Louisville in a tie for seventh place in the conference standings. The Panthers have lost three consecutive games only once in Jamie Dixon's five seasons as head coach.