Notre Dame boys’ basketball coach Jonathan Adams and girls’ coach Jason Hill might want to take whatever they told their respective teams at halftime on Thursday night and bottle it up for the home stretch of the season.
The two teams combined to outscore Grace Baptist Academy 44-9 in each of their third quarters on the way to a sweep of the visiting Golden Eagles. The boys won 55-39 behind Bryson Smith’s game-high 20 points, while Kate Ford and Jolie McGann combined for 33 points as the Lady Irish doubled up Grace 64-32 in the Division II-A East District 2 match-up.
Not only did both teams have monster third quarters, they each controlled the outcome of the game the same way: a suffocating defense.
Both coaches admitted that their team hadn’t been shooting the ball well entering the contest, and that the best way to generate offense was by creating turnovers on defense.
For Adams’ squad, the stark contrast between the first and second halves were like night and day. After scoring just 18 points in the first half and trailing by four at the break, the Fighting Irish (14-10, 7-1) forced ten third-quarter turnovers that directly led to 11 fast-break points as they outscored the Golden Eagles (7-9, 3-5) 25-5 in the period.
“We know most of the time playing good defense can be our best offense,” said Adams. “Grace does such a good job with their zone defense that we said if we could just get out in transition and not have to play against the zone, then we’d have a better chance. We were able to do that in the third quarter, and all of a sudden we were able to knock down some shots. But it was our aggressiveness on the defensive end that got that us going.”
The Irish wasted no time turning up the defensive intensity coming out of the locker room. They forced four turnovers by the Golden Eagles in the first 1:17 of the third quarter, leading to an 8-0 run and a quick timeout by Grace.
The brief opportunity for Grace to talk things over did little to slow down Notre Dame. The Irish went on another 9-0 run just a couple of minutes later to open up a 38-25 lead.
Not only did Notre Dame’s defense create easier offensive opportunities, it also helped them find their shooting stroke when they were forced to run a halfcourt set on offense. After struggling to make anything outside of the lane in the first half, the Irish went 4-for-4 from behind the arc in the third quarter. By the time the teams headed into the final frame, Notre Dame had turned that four-point deficit into a comfortable 43-27 lead.
Smith led Notre Dame’s third quarter charge, hitting two 3-pointers and scoring ten points in the period. But it was the job he did on the defensive end of the court that impressed his coach the most.
“We have been talking to Bryson about how these past couple of games he’s done a really good job of taking the challenge of guarding a good player on the other side,” said Adams. “As a result, he’s gotten some run-outs with some lay-ups, and all of a sudden those lay-ups have turned into him knocking down 3-pointers at a pretty good clip. But it has really been his defense – and he is a phenomenal defender – that will be something we’re going to lean on for the rest of the year from him.”
Grace settled down a bit in the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late as Notre Dame cruised in the final minutes. The win helps the Irish keep pace with Boyd-Buchanan in the district standings after having already split the season series with the fourth-ranked Buccaneers.
Tillman Smith led the Golden Eagles with 13 points, with nine of those coming in the second quarter, including a half-court buzzer beater from in front of the scorer’s table.
Notre Dame Girls 64, Grace Baptist 32: The Lady Irish didn’t take quite as much time letting their defense dictate the flow of the game as the boys’ team, using a stifling full-court press to force ten turnovers in the first quarter and open the game on an 11-2 run.
“Our mindset coming into the game was that we wanted to go ahead and force the issue defensively right off the bat, and try to create an up-tempo atmosphere that we felt would favor us tonight,” Hill said. “We’ve struggled at times this year scoring, so we’re trying to create other ways to produce some points. We felt like maybe tonight that would come from some steals and some turnovers from our press. We tried to mix up our defenses and throw some different things at them, and to work on some things for ourselves to figure out what our strengths are down the home stretch of the season.”
Kate Ford got the Lady Irish (16-6, 6-2) off to a fast start, scoring her team’s first seven points. The senior hit a 3-pointer on Notre Dame’s first offensive possession, followed by a drive down the lane that she finished with an underhand scoop. Six seconds later, she turned a steal into another quick bucket, and teammate Jolie McGann hit a trifecta of her own on the Lady Irish’s next trip down the floor.
Grace (8-9, 4-4) fought back, however. Three-pointers by Julianna Gonzales – who led her team with 11 points – and Savanna Englebrecht sparked an 11-4 run for the Lady Golden Eagles, and Notre Dame led by a six-point margin at the end of a quarter.
The second quarter belonged to McGann. After the Lady Irish scored the first six points of the period to extend their lead to 12, McGann knocked down two shots from behind the arc, and scored ten of her 15 points in the period to help her team to a 33-22 lead at the break.
Notre Dame put the game away in the third quarter. Three trifectas in a row – one from Ford and two from senior Averie Sheppard – led a 13-0 run over a span of four minutes that gave the Lady Irish a comfortable 46-23 lead on their way to the victory. Notre Dame shot 8-of-20 from behind the arc, a stat that Hill attributed to the increased defensive intensity throughout the game.
“I feel like if we can get their legs going and producing points in other ways, it will lead to more looks for them and more confidence from the 3-point line,” said Hill. “If all we’re doing is relying on the 3-pointer and living or dying by that, we don’t want to become that. We want to make sure we focus on all the aspects of our game. That way when we get into tight games and we’re not shooting the ball well, we can go back to our foundation of defense.”
Ford led all scorers with 18 points. Her career point total now stands at 1,621, just 35 points shy of Notre Dame’s all-time leading scorer Alicia Ransom. The Lady Irish travel to St. Andrew’s-Sewanee on Saturday before hosting Chattanooga Christian next Tuesday night.
The win gives Notre Dame firm control of the second seed in the district behind Silverdale Baptist, who has already beaten the Lady Irish in both regular-season match-ups. Grace still stands in third place, two games ahead of Boyd-Buchanan and Collegedale Academy.
GIRLS GAME SUMMARY
GRACE BAPTIST 13 9 4 6 -- 32
NOTRE DAME 19 14 19 12 -- 64
GRACE BAPTIST (32) – Julianna Gonzales 11, Weest 7, Englebrecht 6, Rush 3, Long 2, Fulgham 2, Corcoran 1, Betrous, Aleca.
NOTRE DAME (64) – Kate Ford 18, Jolie McGann 15, Averie Sheppard 10, Wolf 6, Mullins 6, Campbell 5, Skaggs 4, Distasio, Soutuyo, Fillauer, E. McGann.
3-POINT GOALS: Grace Baptist 4 (Gonzales 2, Rush, Englebrecht); Notre Dame 8 (J. McGann 3, Ford 2, Sheppard 2, Campbell).
BOYS GAME SUMMARY
GRACE BAPTIST 6 16 5 12 -- 39
NOTRE DAME 8 10 25 12 -- 55
GRACE BAPTIST (39) – Tillman Smith 13, Long 9, J. Smith 6, Knecht 5, Carter 4, Parrott 2, Walker, Keith.
NOTRE DAME (55) – Bryson Smith 20, Jones 8, Price 7, Robinson 6, Wilkerson 5, Vaughn 4, Spurgeon 3, G. Fillauer 2, McNamara, Summitt, Turley, A. Fillauer.
3-POINT GOALS: Grace Baptist 2 (T. Smith, Knecht); Notre Dame 6 (Smith 3, Jones, Spurgeon, Price).
(Contact Kevin Llewallyn at kevin.llewallyn@gmail.com)