Down 12 at halftime of its Northern California Division IV semifinal game, it was obvious the only way the Notre Dame-Belmont girls’ basketball team was going to make a second-half run was to shoot itself back into the game with Sacramento’s Bradshaw Christian.
Shooting is not the Tigers’ forte. But a hot second half still might not have been enough for the second-seeded Tigers as the 11th-seeded Pride put the pedal to the metal in the third quarter, outscoring NDB 22-8 and running away with a 62-31 decision in Belmont Tuesday night.
“We lost to a much better team,” said NDB head coach Josh Davenport, who coached his last game for the Tigers as he is moving to Colorado in a few weeks.
“I didn’t think anyone could shoot that well in this gym.”
Bradshaw Christian (22-12) showed a knack for knocking down shots all game long. The Pride finished the game shooting 47 percent, but were 42 percent (9 for 21) from behind the 3-point line.
It was the 3-ball that proved the difference for Bradshaw Christian. The Pride connected on 4 of 9 shot from behind the arc in the first period, but were just getting warmed up.
Up 28-16 at halftime, Bradshaw Christian pushed its lead to 50-24 going into the fourth period after shooting 5 of 8 from behind the 3-point line in the third quarter.
The Pride had runs of 11-0 and 10-0 in the third period as NDB shot just 3 for 12 in the quarter. The Pride’s Cookie Marques,who finished with a game-high 20 points, scored 12 of her team’s 22 third-quarter points, scoring eight straight as Bradshaw Christian opened up a 39-18 lead with 5:08 left in the quarter.
The Pride then ended the quarter with three straight 3s to push their lead to 26 points, 50-24, going into the final eight minutes.
“I wasn’t panicked at all (at halftime),’ Davenport said. “But we didn’t start well that second half. Just offensively, we were stagnant.”
And even with the Pride looking to run clock in the fourth quarter, they still managed to outscore the Tigers in the period, 12-7. NDB, which shot just 3 for 19 in the final quarter and just 25 percent for the game, did not reach double-digits scoring in any of the four quarter.
“We couldn’t do it (shoot ourselves back into the game),” Davenport said. “We picked the wrong time to have our worst game of the year.”
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As usual, the Tigers showed plenty of tenacity on defense, but it became demoralizing when the Pride would simply dribble the ball for 15 seconds and then knock down a shot off one pass, or penetrate and kick for an open shot — that, more often than not, they drained.
That seemed to effect the Tigers on the offensive end as they did not show the same grit and determination going after rebounds that they had on the defensive end. Bradshaw Christian dominated the boards, 39-23, limiting NDB to one shot most of the time.
Going into the game, Davenport believed he had the numbers to wear down the six-player Pride, who finished their 66-58 quarterfinal win over No. 3 Union Mine-El Dorado with only three players on the court. Davenport thought post Olga Faasolo could be the Tigers x-factor on the block. Faasolo, playing with a banged up knee, got off to a decent start. She got the ball in the post a handful of times early in the first quarter, but had trouble finishing.
When the Pride went to a double-team against Faasolo, bracketing her front and back, they forced her to kick the ball back out to the perimeter. Faasolo finished with eight points and nine boards in her final game for the Tigers.
“I told the girls our advantage was on the inside,” Davenport said. “And we had a hard time getting it inside.”
NDB trailed just 7-6 with 2:22 left in the opening quarter before the Pride knocked down back-to-back 3s. If not for the play of Talia Bertana, who scored six of her eight points in the first quarter, the Tigers’ opening-quarter deficit might have been more than 13-8.
Bertana knocked down a shot to open the second quarter for NDB, closing to 13-10, but Bradshaw Christian got a pair of free throws from Anaya Mejia (15 points, 10 rebounds), a pull-up jumper from Jordan Patterson Reid and a runner from Mejia to take a 19-10 lead.
Faasolo scored a pair of baskets for NDB, her jump hook with 2:23 left in the first half cutting the Tigers’ deficit to seven, 21-14. But a 3-pointer from Jasalyn Brown kick-started a 7-2 run to end the half, with the Pride up 28-16 at the break.
The second half did not go much better for the Tigers, as they managed only 15 points. Alaiyah San Juan led the NDB in scoring for the fourth straight game, finishing with 11 points.
“We just never got into an offensive rhythm,” Davenport said.
Bradshaw Christian will now take on top-seeded Woodside Priory in the Nor Cal championship game at 6 p.m. Saturday at Santa Clara University. Woodside Priory advanced to with a 55-35 win over No. 4 San Joaquin Memorial.
In a Division III semifinal, No. 8 Sacred Heart Prep also saw its season end as the Gators were walloped 71-34 by No. 5 West Campus-Sacramento.
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