By Rich Stevens
The sixth-seeded Notre Dame girls basketball team hit 50 percent of its 3-point shot attempts in the first half and didn’t look back in winning its first state tournament game, 51-29 in the Class A quarterfinals on Thursday morning.
Tucker (21-4) scored eight of the first nine points of the game when Elizabeth Nichols, the team’s second-leading scorer, went to the bench with two fouls.
Notre Dame (17-7), which faces the winner of the Fayetteville-Gilmer County game in Friday’s 11:15 a.m. semifinal, followed with an 11-3 run and didn’t trail again.
“We took her out and everything went bad,” Tucker County head coach Jim Ambrose said. “She had a turnover to (Clare) Cistaro and tried to block her shot and got a foul she didn’t need. We’re not a deep team anyway and you’re taking out your best rebounder.”
Nichols had seven rebounds to lead Tucker in just 20 minutes of action.
Hannah Griffith had 18 points and 11 rebounds for Notre Dame, which won for the first time in four meetings this season against the Mountain Lions.
Another clear advantage for Notre Dame was its 3-point shooting ability. Although the Irish was 0-for-5 from long range in the second half, the damage had been done and was amplified by a Rachel Rogers 3 beyond half court just before the halftime buzzer.
“I said coming in we had one of the best 3-point shooting teams, maybe not in the state, but in Class A. Clare actually had even 3s against Union,” Notre Dame coach Ron Ridgway said.
Tucker had four players with at least five rebounds and won on the boards 40-36. Rogers had eight rebounds and Francesca Steele seven for Notre Dame.
