Coach Tommy Fox was feeling pretty good about his Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball team after Monday night’s 82-53 home victory over the Silverdale Seahawks in Jim Phifer Gymnasium.

It wasn’t as much the margin of victory, but the way his kids went about taking care of business on the defensive end.

Add to that the fact that two freshmen combined for 53 points and Fox must also be feeling good about the future of his team.

“The effort was there as we really played hard tonight,” Fox began after his team claimed its second regular-season victory.

“We pressured the ball well and forced a lot of turnovers. We didn’t give them a lot of easy buckets. We put them on the line a lot, but that comes with the pressure defense.

“D.J. is a special kid who can really shoot it. He has great body control, but the best thing about him is his competitiveness.

"He doesn’t like to lose at anything and that attitude is rubbing off on the other kids,” Fox praised D.J. Bowles, who set the pace for the Fighting Irish with 32 points to match his jersey number.

The Seahawks played well in the early going and enjoyed their biggest lead at 12-7 following a 3-pointer from Josh Riley at the 3:38 mark of the first quarter.

The advantage was 16-12 following a drive by Tyler Barnett with 1:41 remaining in the first.

Notre Dame then went on a roll and scored 17 of the next 18 points in the next six minutes and it never got any closer.

The Notre Dame lead was 20-16 when the first quarter ended and a much more comfortable 45-23 at intermission.

The Seahawks gave their best effort for the entire game, but Notre Dame was simply too tall, too quick and too athletic for Silverdale.

“You can tell it was our first game, but we have a lot of young kids who don’t have a lot of varsity basketball experience,” said Silverdale coach Ron Wilson.

“We hung in there for a while, but they were definitely the better team tonight. We played better at the start of the second half, but we ran out of gas. We’ll have to get in better shape, but the good news is we never gave up.

“Now we have to turn around and see what we can do at Sale Creek,” the Mayor of Stump Street said about Tuesday night’s second road game of the week.

While Bowles had 32 points to lead all scorers, teammate Stedman Ford was also in double figures with 21 points.

Michael McCutcheon was next with eight points while Nick Ellis chipped in with seven.

The Seahawks had four players in double figures with Barnett’s 13 leading the way.

Henry Frick and Wil Amos both added 11 while Riley finished with 10 points.

While Silverdale’s next game is Tuesday night at Sale Creek, Notre Dame returns to action next Tuesday with a trip to Grundy County.

Silverdale girls 45, Notre Dame 40: The Lady Seahawks led from the beginning, although a 3-pointer from Amanda McLaughlin gave the Lady Irish a 34-33 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Silverdale regrouped with a 12-9 advantage in the final eight minutes to gain the five-point win.

Miriah Massingale led the way for Silverdale with 24 points while Kelsey Dishroon was next with nine.

McLaughlin and Sydney Lundquist both scored seven points to lead Notre Dame while Jackie Freye was next with six.

Madison Cox and Jalisa Jones both finished with five points.

GIRLS SUMMARY
Silverdale 12 11 10 12 -- 45
Notre Dame 8 9 14 9 -- 40

SILVERDALE (45) – Miriah Massingale 24, Bautista 1, Dishroon 9, Mossburg, Walliser 2, Woods 4, Redmond 3, Lowery 2.

NOTRE DAME (40) – McLaughlin 7, Freye 6, Robinson, Ciabattone 3, Cox 5, Picard 3, D. Lundquist, Jones 5, S. Lundquist 7, Gadd 4.

3-POINT GOALS: Silverdale 2 (Massingale, Dishroon); Notre Dame 3 (McLaughlin, Cox, Jones).

BOYS SUMMARY
Silverdale 16 7 17 13 -- 53
Notre Dame 20 25 14 23 -- 82

SILVERDALE (53) – McNew 1, Henry Frick 11, Tyler Barnett 13, Brown 2, Josh Riley 10, Lim, Dye, Wil Amos 11, Randolph 5, Hall, Jackson.

NOTRE DAME (82) – Suarez 2, Stedman Ford 21, McCutcheon 8, Avery 4, Dorris 1, Long, Middlebrooks, Ellis 7, Gunter, D.J. Bowles 32, Brogdon 2, Davenport, Sutton 4.

3-POINT GOALS: Silverdale 2 (Barnett, Riley); Notre Dame 7 (Ford, McCutcheon 2, Bowles 4).

(Email John Hunt at tnmoose2002@aol.com)