PITTSBURGH — Notre Dame had green uniforms, green fingernails and one of the greenest lineups in the NCAA women’s tournament.

By the end of a tightly played game that tested the inexperienced Fighting Irish’s nerves and composure, they looked liked veterans.

Tulyah Gaines made two free throws with 16.5 seconds left after Charel Allen scored a key basket and set up another, and ninth-seeded Notre Dame rallied for a 62-59 upset of No. 8 California in the NCAA tournament Sunday.

The Irish (20-11) relied on Allen’s 13 points and Melissa Lechlitner’s 12 to advance to a second-round game Tuesday in the Dallas Regional against top-seeded North Carolina (31-3), also in Pittsburgh.

Notre Dame reached the second round for the 11th time in 12 years despite having only two seniors, so maybe it was fitting they painted their fingernails green, a tradition any time the Irish play around St. Patrick’s Day.

Allen, a former Pittsburgh area high school star, did little offensively for a long stretch of the second half as Cal (23-9) rallied from a 36-25 deficit to take four separate leads. Almost all the Bears’ offense came from sophomore inside players Ashley Walker (20 points) and Devanei Hampton (13 points).

“The game was tough, very intense because we haven’t really played two post players like that,” Notre Dame freshman Erica Williamson said. “It was a struggle for our team.”

But after Walker missed two free throws, Crystal Erwin scored on a feed in the lane from Allen, and Allen then scored herself after Ashley Barlow’s steal to make it 56-51.

Williamson scored from the lane to up the Irish’s lead to seven points, but the Bears had one more comeback left in them. Lauren Greif hit a 3-pointer and Natasha Vital scored on a four-player fast break to cut it to 58-56. Walker went down at midcourt with a knee injury on the play, but she was not seriously hurt and returned after a timeout.

Lechlitner, one of the Irish’s four freshmen, gave the Bears another chance by missing the front end of a one-and-one with 31 seconds to go. But Hampton dribbled the ball out of bounds off her foot with 19 seconds remaining, and Gaines took advantage by making her two free throws.

Greif made three free throws after unwisely being fouled on a 3-point attempt with seven seconds left, but the Irish dribbled the clock down to a half-second left. Lechlitner made two more free throws to seal it and end Notre Dame’s three-game losing streak.

The noon start couldn’t have helped the Bears, who looked to still be on Pacific time in their first game in two weeks. The 6-foot-3 Hampton, the Pac-10 player of the year, got into foul trouble and had to sit out 12 minutes in the first half. She then drew her third foul with about 51⁄2 minutes left.

“It was frustrating,” Hampton said. “Coach said we should just play, you know, physical. I don’t know.”

The 6-1 Walker, Cal’s other strong sophomore inside player, kept the Bears from getting too far down by going 10-of-10 from the foul line and scoring 12 of their 23 first-half points. The Irish led 32-23 at halftime.

“Were we scared? Were we intimidated? Were we tentative? I don’t know,” Cal coach Joanne Boyle said. “We put ourselves in a situation this year against a couple of teams and we’ve come from behind and we’ve been able to pull games out.”

California is 1-5 in NCAA play and hasn’t won since beating Kansas in 1993.