NEW YORK -- Notre Dame easily handled Pitt without its best player 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's leading scorer who has been slowed by a bone bruise in his knee, scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds Wednesday night 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. Thursday 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 in the game.

A healthy Harangody makes the Irish doubly difficult to defend. Notre Dame's guards did not shoot well against Seton Hall, going only 3 for 12 from 3-point range. But the offense got enough easy points inside with Harangody scoring 15 of his 20 points in the first half. All of them came in the final 14:30 after starting the game on the bench.

"He's coming along really well," senior point guard Tory Jackson said. "The scoring could have been more balanced tonight. Just imagine what we would be like if we made some of our outside shots."

That's a scary prospect for the Panthers, who had a hard enough time matching up with the Irish the first time around.

Harangody returned to play in the regular-season finale against Marquette after missing five consecutive games, but he only scored five points in 11 minutes. Against Seton Hall he did all of his damage in 24 minutes. He was 9 for 15 from the field.

"He was ready to go," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "We're going to need that. We didn't really need it as much [against Marquette]. And maybe he wasn't quite ready to do all that after just a practice and a half. But we had three good practices [before the Seton Hall game], and I think he's back in a rhythm at a very key time."

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