Opening tip of the boys semifinal game between Boyd-Buchanan and Notre Dame.
photo by Greg Davick
“Three-Peat” was the operative word for teams playing at Notre Dame’s Jim Phifer Gymnasium in the semifinal round of the Division II, District 2-A basketball tournament Thursday night.
Three of the four winners won for the third straight time, but that wasn’t the case in the final game of the evening as third-seeded Notre Dame handed second-seed Boyd-Buchanan a 43-35 setback.
That was the only upset of the night as both top-seeded teams Notre Dame’s girls and Chattanooga Christian’s boys both advanced to Friday night’s championship round while the Silverdale Lady Seahawks beat the CCS girls in the battle of two-three seeds.
Notre Dame’s Lady Irish improved to 18-10 with a 40-35 win over the Lady Golden Eagles from Grace in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score might indicate. The CCS boys had the easiest road to the finals with an impressive 73-45 victory over Silverdale while the Lady Seahawks improved to 19-7 with their 65-60 win over CCS.
Four more games are on tap Friday with two consolation games followed by the two championships.
Grace meets CCS for third place among the girls at 4 while Silverdale and Boyd-Buchanan do the same for the guys at 5:30. Notre Dame’s girls challenge Silverdale for top honors among the girls at 7 while CCS and Notre Dame will lock horns in the last game around 8:30.
All of the championship teams will host first-round Region games on Monday and Tuesday while the teams playing for third and fourth will travel. Knoxville Webb will be the location for the region finals next weekend.
NOTRE DAME GIRLS 40, GRACE 35: The Lady Golden Eagles may have been seeded fourth, but they didn’t play like it as they put up a pretty good fight with the Lady Irish.
Notre Dame built a 13-6 lead in the first half of the first quarter before Grace rallied for a 14-13 lead following a drive down the lane by Hailey Wiest with 2:36 to play. Four straight points by the Lady Irish put Notre Dame ahead by 17-14 when the first stanza ended.
Wiest sank the second of two free throws with 5:42 showing in the second quarter before Notre Dame finished the half on a 9-0 run for a 28-17 lead at the break.
It was still an 11-point difference at 34-23 when the fourth quarter began. Three straight points by Mackenzie Johnson gave Notre Dame its biggest lead of the game at 37-23 with 5:43 left and that’s when the Lady Irish took the air out of the ball.
The lead was still somewhat comfortable at 40-30 in the final minute before Grace scored the last five points for the final difference of five.
“Our goal was simply to move on to the next round, but Grace did an outstanding job of taking away what we wanted to do,” said Notre Dame coach Jason Hill afterward.
“Once we extended a lead a little in the second half, we wanted to shorten the game and slow things down a little bit. We gave them more opportunities at the end than I wanted, but we’re in the finals and that’s all that matters,” Hill added.
Johnson scored 13 points and was the only player on either team in double figures. Averie Sheppard, Kate Ford and Kenzie Campbell all had six points for the Lady Irish while Mary Fillauer finished with five.
Megan Long was tops for Grace with nine points. Keilyn Morgan was next with eight while Abigail Smith had six.
CCS BOYS 73, SILVERDALE 45: Michael Houge scored 13 of this 15 points in the first quarter as the Chargers built a 23-12 lead at the start.
Amos Davenport scored on a layup in the final minute of the second quarter to give CCS its biggest lead of the half at 37-19 before Ben Bambrey’s layup cut it to 37-21 at intermission.
The lead slowly increased to a high of 29 points following a short jumper in the lane by John Rhodes with 4:20 to play.
“Our plan was to come out hard and I think we did that, but we just have to stay focused and continue to do the little things well,” said CCS coach Eddie Salter after his team had improved to 21-3.
“We got a little bit lazy in the second half, but were able to refocus and take care of business. Right now, it’s just one game at a time, but tomorrow will be tough, no matter who we play,” he nodded.
Davenport scored 17 points to lead the Chargers while Houge was next with 15. Rhodes and Jackson Hilger followed with nine and eight points, respectively.
Jacob Rogers was tops for the Seahawks with 14 points while Owen Neal was also in double figures with a dozen.
SILVERDALE GIRLS 65, CCS 60: The Lady Chargers got off to a quick start and had a 16-6 lead following a 3 by Lily Brady late in the first quarter, but the Lady Seahawks never hit the panic button and slowly chipped away.
Savannah Ricketts sank the second of two free throws with 1:42 left in the second to give CCS a 25-22 lead, but Silverdale finished the half on a 9-0 run and a six-point lead that CCS never recovered from.
The Lady Chargers got within two at 38-36 following a bucket by Kayla Youell with 31 seconds left in the third stanza, but it never got any closer than three points the rest of the way.
Youell sank a long 3 with 5.5 seconds to play at CCS got within 63-60, but Marlee Montgomery sank two free throws less than a second later to preserve the victory.
“Unity has been our theme all season, so tonight’s win was really a total team effort,” said Silverdale coach Victor Underwood.
“I always get nervous when we play CCS and tonight was no exception, but everything came together at the right time. We stuck with our game plan and didn’t get rattled. We have a young team with only one senior and one junior, but we didn’t play like a young team,” he added.
Audrey Canter scored 19 points to lead the Lady Seahawks while Laney Bone was next with 12. Tessa Gibson and Becca Lamb also chipped in with nine and eight points, respectively.
Ricketts was tops for CCS with 21 points while Addie Henry was held to just 11. Kate Dirkse and Youell both had eight for the Lady Chargers.
Silverdale had an unofficial 36-28 advantage in rebounds after both teams had 16 caroms at the half. Lamb was tops for Silverdale with 12 while Bone had nine and Montgomery seven. Dixie Walker and Henry both had five for CCS.
Both teams are now 19-7 following Thursday’s battle.
NOTRE DAME BOYS 43, BOYD-BUCHANAN 35: The Fighting Irish entered tournament play as the third seed and their record isn’t as impressive as the two two teams, but they showed up and played well when it counted the most as they beat the Buccaneers for the first time in three tries.
The game was tied twice in the opening stanza, but the only lead for the Bucs came at 9-7 following a 3 by Preston Edmondson with 1:23 left in the first frame.
Nine straight points by the Irish gave the guys in green a 16-9 lead two minutes into the second quarter and the differenced was 20-15 at the half.
Back-to-back buckets by Will Emrey and Jacob Oliver to start the second half got the Bucs within one at 20-19, but it never got closer than two the rest of the way.
Two free throws by Eli Evans with 3:02 to play cut Notre Dame’s lead to 38-35, but Bryson Smith scored all four of his points and Derwin Lewis a free throw at the end as the Irish won with room to spare.
“Boyd-Buchanan is such a good team and they got off to a great start the two times we lost to them, but we’re the ones who wanted a fast start today and we were able to do just that,” said Notre Dame coach Jonathan Adams.
“We’ve been through a lot this season as we’ve played some really good non-district teams. Those games helped us tonight. I told our guys that if we put the work in, there would be no surprises. We laid out the game plan we felt like would work and they did exactly that,” Adams nodded with a smile.
First-year Boyd-Buchanan coach Josh Templeton gave all the credit to Notre Dame for a job well done.
“We knew it would be a game like this, smash mouth, hard-nosed basketball, but Notre Dame whipped us in every phase of the game,” Templeton said before talking to his team.
“They made some big shots when they needed to while we had a hard time finding the range. That was because of Notre Dame’s defense, but they forced us out of everything we wanted to do. We still get to play at least two more games, but this isn’t what we had in mind for today,” he concluded.
Lewis had 19 points to lead the Irish while Tarik Nelson had 13 for the winners.
Evans was tops for the Bucs with nine points while Emrey and Covington both finished with six.
GIRLS SUMMARIES
GRACE 14 3 6 12 -- 35
NOTRE DAME 17 11 6 6 -- 40
GRACE (35) – Long 9, Smith 6, Wiest 3, Gonzales 5, Rush, Morgan 8, Fulgham 4.
NOTRE DAME (40) – Sheppard 6, Ford 6, Sparks 4, Johnson 13, Bird, Campbell 6, Fillauer 5.
3-POINT GOALS: Grace 2 (Long, Gonzales); Notre Dame 5 (Sheppard 2, Campbell 2, Fillauer).
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 16 9 11 24 -- 60
SILVERDALE 12 19 9 25 -- 65
CCS (60) – Mary Vandergriff 1, Madison Vandergriff, Blevins, Henry 11, Davick 2, Brady 3, Ricketts 21, Walker 6, Youell 8, Dirkse 8, Lowe.
SILVERDALE (65) – Jarrell, Canter 19, Lamb 8, Hoover 3, Stiner, Bone 12, Renegar 8, Gibson 9, Montgomery 6.
3-POINT GOALS: CCS 6 (Henry, Brady, Ricketts 2, Youell 2); Silverdale 4 (Canter 2, Hoover, Gibson).
BOYS SUMMARIES
SILVERDALE 12 9 10 14 -- 45
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 23 14 18 18 -- 73
SILVERDALE (45) – Sanders 4, S. Bambrey 4, Lemery, Rogers, McInnis, B. Bambrey 5, Kelley 6, Rogers 14, Delaschmitt, Neal 12.
CCS (73) – Davenport 17, Rhodes 9, Van Meter 5, Ellison 6, Houge 15, Hilger 8, Tre. Scott 5, Hinton 6, Young 1, Stimart 1, Tra. Scott.
3-POINT GOALS: Silverdale 2 (Neal 2); CCS 10 (Davenport 3, Rhodes, Van Meter, Ellison, Houge, Hilger, Hinton 2).
NOTRE DAME 11 9 11 12 -- 43
BOYD-BUCHANAN 9 6 10 10 -- 35
NOTRE DAME (43) – Jones 3, Nelson 13, Beard 2, Lewis 19, Smith 4, Price, Vaughn 2, Wilkerson.
BOYD-BUCHANAN (35) – Evans 9, Oliver 4, Edmondson 5, Emrey 6, Covington 6, C. Johnson, I. Johnson 5.
3-POINT GOALS: Notre Dame 4 (Jones, Nelson, Lewis 2); Boyd-Buchanan 1 (Edmondson).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)