Notre Dame Sweeps CSAS Hoops

Vaughn Leads Irish, Campbell Paces Lady Irish To Wins

  • Tuesday, January 19, 2021
  • Joseph Dycus
 “Do-it-all small forward” is almost a cliché at this point, but for Notre Dame’s star forward Tim Vaughn, there is no more suitable a label for the junior who does a little bit of everything for the Fighting Irish. In the 54-33 home win over CSAS, Vaughn’s end-to-end excellence was never more evident than on a couple of possessions in the second quarter.
 
Vaughn ripped the ball away from a confused CSAS guard and began to motor to the basket. He easily dribbled past the first defender, but still had two more in between him and two points.
So he got even lower, split the two Patriots like hot butter, and then rose up, the ball held high above his head, cocked back his arm and slammed in CSAS’ 16th and 17th points of the game.
 
A few moments later, Vaughn again had the ball and drove it into the heart of the defense. But rather than try to finish a tough layup in traffic, he fired the rock back out to the perimeter, which started a series of passes along the three point line. It ended with a wide-open trey for Christian Robinson.
 
“He’s so talented,” Notre Dame coach Jonathan Adams said. “Tonight he was able to get to the rim and get out in transition. He is such a good player and works so hard that he wants to show all the facets of his game, and sometimes I just tell him to take the easy play the defense gives us, and to go from there.”
 
Notre Dame ran out to a 15-6 lead thanks to a couple of first-quarter drives by Vaughn, where he would often take a few LeBron-style steps back, before barreling in for an attack on the rim. Guard DJ Brown complimented Vaughn’s drives with a few slippery takes of his own. On one such foray, he took the handoff from a big and began to drive left. This was all an elaborate ruse, with Brown suddenly juking back across on a quick euro-step to get back to his dominant right side.
 
CSAS’ offense sputtered along for the most part, although F. Brown did knock down a straightaway three to momentarily stop the Irish’s roll. Bigman Louie Bell was the only Patriot to hit double-figures, and did all of his best work inside. He was most active in the third quarter, when a dunk attempt was fouled up before he could put someone on a poster. Bell also flashed deft footwork and touch when he hit a turnaround over his left shoulder. But outside of him, the Patriots struggled to gain separation from the Irish defense.
 
“Playing one-on-one defense was out point of emphasis, trying to keep our man in front of us,” coach Adams said. “They’re so quick that presented a challenge for us, but I thought we helped well. We weren’t perfect, but pretty good.”
 
Unfortunately for the visitors, Bell’s Patriots were busy being run up and down in an endless fastbreak by DJ Brown, Bryson Smith, and the rest of the Fighting Irish. Most of Notre Dame’s points came after ripping the ball away from a Patriot and starting an open court attack. Wesley Jones’ fired a bullet from halfcourt to DJ Brown for one such score, which naturally elicited a huge roar of approval from the masked onlookers in Notre Dame’s gym. While Jones did not score a point, his passing gave the entire offense a lift.
 
“I’ve had the advantage of having old guards since I’ve been here, and he’s a senior who has been through it all,” coach Adams said. “We have some tough teams in our league like Boyd Buchannan who pressures us. He’s a steadying force for us.”
 
Before leaving the game with about six and a half minutes left in the contest, , Vaughn got himself two more buckets to give him an even 20 for the night. He started the quarter by lurking on the baseline, and was wide open for a dunk after a guard forced his defender to help off him. The second showcased his handle. Vaughn drove left into the paint, spun back right without barreling into a defender, and put up his final points of the night. The rest of the game was rather nondescript, and the Irish came away with the win a few minutes later.
 
“We played well, and CSAS is a young team, but they play so hard and are so talented,” coach Adams said. “They’re going to be a problem down the road, and coach Mark Dragoo does such a good job.”

NOTRE DAME GIRLS 49, CSAS 27: Kenzie Campbell was stuck on automatic in Notre Dame’s 49-27 win over the visiting CSAS Patriots. Known as a great shooter, she also peppered the Patriots with cuts to the basket, drives out of triple threat, and layups. But of course, many of her points came from running the baseline and getting shots from the perimeter.
 
CSAS did their best to stymie the Irish, and Macie Meyners had an absolutely incredible block in the third quarter. Campbell probably thought she had another two points on the fastbreak, but Meyners met her in the air and erased the shot with one hand. She then recovered the ball and dribbled it down the left side, escaped a double team, and tried to make a pass back out to an open teammate.
 
Jekya Benn was solid inside and grabbed a handful of offensive rebounds, and she also made a hook shot with three defenders surrounding her on one possession. But Campbell and her teammates simply overwhelmed CSAS. Aside from Campbell’s 25, Claire Mullins notched 6 and the Irish enjoyed a balanced scoring attack outside of their main scorer.

BOY’S BOX SCORE
 
CSAS                    6    9   10    8 – 33
NOTRE DAME    15  12   14   13 - 54
 
CSAS (33) -
Bell 10, Gaines 3, F. Brown 5, Cameron 3, J. Brown 3, Few 2, Pride 2, McDonald 2, Smith 2, Pace 1.
NOTRE DAME (54) - Tim Vaughn 20, Cole McCormick 7, Bryson Smith 7, Ty Wilkerson 1,  DJ Brown 9, Christian Robinson 3, Andrew Fillauer 2, Cal Price 5
3-POINT GOALS: Notre Dame 4 (Smith, Price, Brown, Robinson); CSAS 1 (F. Brown)

GIRL’S BOX SCORE
 
CSAS:                12   5     6    4 - 27
NOTRE DAME   13   1   17    5 - 49

 
CSAS (27) -  Houston 4, McGhee 5, Phillips 7, Bulls 3, Thompson 2, Wright 2, Benn 4.
NOTRE DAME(49) - Soutuyo 4, Campbell 25, Fillauer 5, Skaggs 5, Gaines 4, Mullins 6.
3-POINT GOALS: Notre Dame 3 (Campbell 2, Skaggs); CSAS 2 (Phillips, Houston)

(Email Joseph Dycus at joseph.a.dycus@gmail.com)
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