Freshmen lead Notre Dame-Belmont to first home win of season

“They’re two really great kids,” NDB head coach Sam Rossi said. “From a basketball standpoint, they can play any position. We throw a lot at them but they’ve handled it great since the beginning of the season. They’re very coachable and they work hard. That’s all we can really ask for.”

With three of the Tigers starters taller than Kings Academy starting five, the game plan early was simple: get the ball to the paint. Kakala was the main beneficiary as she got all she wanted at the rim early as the Tigers jumped out to a 7-1 lead two minutes into the game yielding a Knights timeout.

Under a minute later, Vivana Martinez made a highlight play for the Tigers stripping the ball out of the Knights guard’s hands and taking it coast-to-coast with a behind the back dribble for the layup. The Tigers hit the ground running in the first with a 15-6 lead and Kakala accounting for nine of those points.

With Kakala out of the game, the Knights had a mini 4-0 burst to begin the second quarter but Martinez would halt their momentum with another dazzling play. Trapped at the top of the key after picking up her dribble, she found Julia Oliveira-Killmon cutting to the hoop with a no-look over the shoulder pass. Oliveira-Killmon would cash in the opportunity with a layup and drawn foul.

“We were definitely trying to go inside first and get some close looks,” Rossi said. “We were hoping if they’d collapse then we’d get some movement and shots off of that. Kings does a really nice job with ball pressure, so we definitely wanted to work inside first.”

Kakala was then re-inserted and instantly dropped a bucket on a second-chance layup. The Knights tried to make adjustments all night long by denying entry passes to her and doubling her as soon as she got the ball, but to little avail. Kakala had 11 of the Tigers’ 21 points by halftime.

Not to be outdone was Kings guard Estella Wu who scored 14 points of her own on Friday. She responded to Kakala’s second-chance bucket with a deep three drawing oohs and aahs from the crowd. Wu finished with 14 points as the Knights actually won the second quarter and cut the lead to six heading into halftime.

The third quarter proved to be the turning point of the game with the freshman tandem of Cary and Kakala taking over. Cary started off the quarter with a midrange swish from the left elbow, but King’s responded quickly with a three pointer. Then Kakala, who got doubled for a strong majority of the second half, got crafty around the rim with a pump fake on one possession and a reverse on the next one — both yielding a field goal. She finished with 19 points on the night.

With five minutes left, Cary stole the ball from King’s guard and took it coast-to-coast for a layup and a foul while maneuvering her way around two defenders. She’d go on to make the free throw to complete the three-point play. Four minutes later, she intercepted a pass on defense and took it coast-to-coast again to grow the lead to 15.

The game got more physical and sloppy in the fourth with turnovers and sloppy possessions aplenty. Rossi would re-insert Cary back into the game to add some control to the Tigers offense as she finished with 10 points on the night. Wu did all in her power to keep the Knights afloat cashing in most of her free throws and some impressive drives to the rim, but unfortunately for Kings Academy, it was too little too late as the Tigers escaped with the 15-point victory.

The Tigers got all 45 of their points from their starting five, but it’s something Rossi will definitely take as her team improves to 9-3 on the season. They’ll be back in action next Tuesday, Jan. 9, taking on Menlo School on the road in the West Bay Athletic League opener.

“We came out and played physical,” Rossi said while talking about positives they can take going into future games. “Today, for us, it was about matching their intensity because (Kings Academy) is a really aggressive team and for us sometimes we kind of just sit back and watch. It was really great to just match their intensity.”