Fighting Irish still perfect
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish keep on getting the job done.
The top-ranked Irish defeated the Centennial Cougars 39-27 Wednesday in a championship round quarter-final game at the Fourth Annual BPSN Girls Basketball Tournament to remain undefeated this season in regular season and tournament play.
The Irish set the tone early, racing out to a 17-4 lead after one quarter.
“Yeah, sometimes it does make it a little difficult because you have to hold on to the lead, but the girls played really well today,” Notre Dame assistant coach Kristen Dean said. “Everybody got to play, everybody contributed points and we’re happy with that win.”
The Irish did what they do best.
“Our usual game plan is always to try to beat others down the court — we have a really fast team — so we try to fast break, play tough D, make sure we don’t let any easy points in and just play our game,” Dean said.
The Irish were led by guard Lila DiPietro, who poured in 14 points, including 10 in the first quarter.
“We obviously wanted to win and work as a team and we just did the best we could,” DiPietro said.
The 15-year-old, Grade 11 student plays a composed game.
“They basically ask me to almost be a leader since I’m one of maybe the oldest, because I’m in Grade 11, but most of my job is to get layups and do good for the team,” she said.
The Pelham Panthers player isn’t intimidated going up against older competition.
“It is hard because I know people are older than me but I try my best to maybe go up to their level,” she said.
Dean loves what DiPietro brings to the court.
“She’s such a strong player,” Dean said. “She obviously is a scorer on our team and she drives really well, but she also has a great outside shot and she plays tough D, so she’s an all-around player.”
The Irish feature a young squad this season but have come together well early on.
“We are a pretty young team and we have been since last year as well,” Dean said. “They played a lot of basketball outside of school. They have so much experience.”
Centennial co-coach Stephanie Findlay was encouraged by her team’s effort — particularly after falling behind so early.
“We brought it back tight,” she said. “They obviously have a huge height advantage, so it’s really hard for us to get the ball and score inside but they started playing a lot tighter defence and that’s what kind of led to more transition points for us.
“They’re a strong team. They have a really deep bench so when they have their set offence it’s hard for us to score so we kind of talked about pushing the ball every chance that we could. The few stints that we played really well were kind of due to that.”
Findlay said Cougars are on the right path.
“It’s hard to go into a game like this,” she said. “We lost to them by 20 the last time we played them. We lost by 12 today so every time we’re getting better and there’s no way to get better unless you play top teams with juel players and good players.
“We definitely got better as a team today.”
STATS PACK
Fighting Irish 39 Cougars 27
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Notre Dame’s Lila DiPietro with 14 points.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Lila DiPietro 14; Ava Briggs 7; Kyra Digaetano 7; Ava DeChellis 6; Nicole Dixon 2; Abbey Grande 2. 1 point unaccounted for on scoresheet.
Centennial Cougars: Lyla Rodrigue 16; Caitlyn Wade 5; McKenna Montague 4; Nevaeh Deroy 2.
Up next: Notre Dame advances to the championship semifinals at Ridley College Thursday at 6 p.m. versus E.L. Crossley
Livestream: Visit hudl.com and search Ridley College to watch Thursday’s semifinals.
The tournament is made possible with the help of Women Networking in Sports of Niagara, Tora Inc., Ridley College, Alltech Automotive, St. Catharines CYO Basketball, Pelham Panthers basketball, Niagara Falls Red Raiders basketball, the Niagara District Referees Association, the District School Board of Niagara and the Niagara Catholic District School Board.
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