SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The Pitt women's basketball team began this season without an offensive identity and as a result struggled to score points against even marginal competition.

But the Panthers' defense, which has been the backbone of the program built by Agnus Berenato, was good enough to keep them in games and lead them to a few wins.

Of course, in a season in which the Panthers can't seem to catch a break, it would only stand to reason that now, having seemingly solved their offensive struggles, they can't seem to stop anyone anymore.

And porous defense was the problem again Saturday for the Panthers, who lost to No. 3 Notre Dame, 86-76, before a sold-out crowd of 9,149 at the Joyce Center.

Pitt (12-10, 1-8 Big East) played well enough offensively to win had it gotten a few more bounces on some open looks, could have approached 90 points.

On this day, however, it might not have mattered. Every time they tried to make a run at the Irish -- who never trailed, had too many easy buckets early and used them to jump out to a 25-12 lead -- the Panthers simply couldn't get enough stops.

They gave up 46 points in the paint and were outrebounded, 38-32, despite having a clear size advantage.

"We rotated out some to try and take away the outside shot but that left a lot of people open under the basket," said Pitt forward Shayla Scott, who, on an off night, scored only five points on 2-for-11 shooting.

Berenato echoed the sentiment but said any time the Panthers are outrebounded, it is either a lack of effort or concentration -- or both.

"We were in a man and we were just trying to pressure the shooters because we can't compete with 3s if a team is hitting them," Berenato said.

If there were good news out of this game, and perhaps the past few games, it was that the Panthers indeed are getting much better offensively.

Four players reached double figures in scoring for the second consecutive game. The team had only 10 turnovers (as opposed to 24 the previous game), got nine steals and shot 47 percent from the floor (31 for 66).

Junior Taneisha Harrison led Pitt with 20 points.

"We gave them way too many open looks today," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "I was disappointed with our defense. I thought we did a poor job of forcing their shooters to take tough shots."

The Irish (21-1, 8-1), who got 21 points from the free-throw line, were led by freshman Skylar Diggins, who scored 23 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and had six assists.

Check out Ray Fittipaldo's Pitt B-Ball blog and Paul Zeise's Pitt Stop videos about football exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.