Notre Dame-Belmont girls' basketball team too much for Terra Nova

After the graduation of prolific guards Alaiyah San Juan and Alex Salise, the Tigers will employ some size this season with the likes of seniors Sophia Dinelli and Ashley North.

But it was the play of sophomore wing Julia Oliveira-Killmon that has NDB off to a 6-2 start to the season after cruising to a 43-21 non-league win over host Terra Nova in Pacifica Tuesday afternoon.

“It was pretty good for having a week off and one practice,” said NDB head coach Sam Rossi. “Our post players were awesome.”

While Rossi lamented the fact that she had several players missing due to injury and several being snowed-in in Tahoe, it turns out Oliveira-Killmon, Dinelli and North proved to be more than enough for NDB to overwhelm Terra Nova, which was equally short-handed.

Aleisha Bray-Montwill provided Terra Nova with an inside presence and could have contended better with Sam Edwards, who missed Tuesday’s game.

That left Bray-Montwill to contend with all three NDB post players and while she did what she could, she finished with 10 rebounds and three blocks, she simply didn’t have enough help to hold off NDB’s three-headed attack.

Oliveira-Killmon was especially lethal. Starting in the high post, she drove the lane consistently in the first quarter, scoring eight straight as NDB opened up an 11-4 lead.

In the second quarter, she turned facilitator as NDB connected on its five shots — all on driving layups down the key.

Dinelli was the first recipient. Starting in the high post, she would pass to Oliveira-Killmon on the wing, turn and head down the lane, unimpeded. On two straight possessions, Dinelli scored a pair of uncontested layups, the second of which gave NDB a 19-9 advantage with 6:41 left in the first half.

Dinelli finished with 12 points, six in each of the first two quarters.

Then, it was North who took over the high post and worked the same play with Oliveira-Killmon with the same result — back-to-back uncontested layups for her only baskets of the game.

North did add six rebounds and two blocked shots.

Dinelli got back in the scoring column as she hit NDB’s fifth second-quarter basket on its fifth shot for a 25-11 lead with 4:19 to play. Oliveira-Killmon then took it herself on a 2-on-1 for NDB’s final points of the half.

Terra Nova, meanwhile, struggled to get much offense going. Head coach Kawann Summerville said he was missing a pair of starters and with a number of other players out for various reasons, Summerville was forced to bring some players up from the junior varsity team.

The lack of experience was telling.

“They’re trying to find an identity,” Summerville said. “They have to play more minutes.”

In the first quarter, Terra Nova managed to get off just five shots as NDB came up with six steals in the opening period, which got its transition game going.

Jalyn Dominquez provided a bit of a bright spot for Terra Nova. Her driving layup gave Terra Nova its first points of the game and she drained a corner 3-pointer with 95 seconds left in the opening quarter.

“This year, she is a taken on a full load,” Summerville said of Dominguez, adding she didn’t play her freshman year because of a knee injury and then COVID impacted her sophomore year.

“She has improved dramatically,” Summerville continued.

But Dominguez did not score again until the fourth quarter.

And if Terra Nova had an any hope for a comeback, down 25-15 at the break, NDB put those thoughts to rest real quick.

More specifically, Oliveira-Killmon put Terra Nova away as she scored 12 of her game-high 24 points in the third period.

NDB went Oliveira-Killmon on six straight possessions to open the second half, and she converted all of them.

Rossi said it was a concentrated effort to get Oliveira-Killmon the ball.

“When they went man (defense), we went inside to [Oliveira-Killmon],” Rossi said.

Oliveira-Killmon showed off her developing game during her scoring streak. While she dominated on the block, she showed she can put the ball on the floor and attack the defense, which also featured a nifty pull-up jumper.

“In a normal role, she’s normally a 4 (power forward),” Rossi said. “Right now, we’re trying to get her more well rounded.”

As if trying to contain Oliveira-Killmon wasn’t tough enough, Terra Nova also had to contend with the fact that its offense, already meager to begin with, almost completely dried up in the second half. After 15 points in the first half, Terra Nova managed only six points in the second.

“We can get a good first half,” Summerville said. “In the second half, we disappear. It’s going on five games now.”