Go ahead, call Notre Dame “defensive” about basketball.
It’s not a character flaw. The Ninth Region champion Pandas are preparing for Wednesday’s Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Girls Sweet 16® first round game against 15th Region winner Pikeville (6 p.m. at Rupp Arena in Lexington) because of their stinginess.
Notre Dame averaged 50.7 points a game this season, including 49.8 in the postseason. Defensively, the Pandas allowed 39.5 and 29.3 in the playoffs.
“Most of the year we played man,” Notre Dame coach George Stoll said. “I guess most of my coaching career I’ve been a man-to-man coach, but I’ve also adapted. We did do a decent amount of zone against Highlands.”
Saturday’s 40-39 overtime win over Holy Cross was the latest example of Panda defense. They held the Indians to 14-of-49 and 28% shooting. In the Pandas’ 48-31 semifinal win over Highlands, the Bluebirds managed just 13-of-40 from the field and 3-of-17 from 3-point range. In the quarterfinals against St. Henry, the Crusaders went 10-of-34. Combine all three of those games together and the opponents shot 30% from the field.
Stoll praised senior Emma Holtzapfel’s defense on Holy Cross’ Jai Johnson.
“I’m really happy that Emma has seemed to become more of a complete basketball player this year,” Stoll said. “Because in a regional final, she guarded the Johnson girl from Holy Cross, who’s been a big scorer for them this year … and held her to two points.”
Junior Sarah Young averaged a team-high 9.0 rebounds. She said watching the ball’s flight is the most important skill she’s learned, but standing 6-foot-2 also helps.
“Just doing your job, boxing out, and just having that extra effort, extra hustle to grab those rebounds,” Young said. “Being taller is definitely an advantage, but yeah, just having that effort and being able to read the flight of the ball is definitely a skill that you definitely need.”
Pikeville (22-8) has dominated the 15th Region – six championships since 2019. The Panthers’ latest win, 59-52 over Johnson Central on March 7, was a record-setter; senior guard Kylie Alvin’s 32 points was the most in a regional championship game.
Alvin leads the Panthers with 18.7 points and 5.9 rebounds. Junior Catharine Walters is next with 14.9 points, and senior Nicole Lin is third at 12.1. Stoll said junior Erin McGraw will likely guard Alvin.
“Our strength of our team the whole year has been our defense, so we’ve hung our hat on that,” Stoll said. “And so I have very high expectations for our defense to be able to go out there against any team that we play, to go out there and defend to the level of expectation that we have.”
Notre Dame (24-7) is no stranger to state sports glory: The Pandas won 10 in volleyball, four in soccer and three in tennis. Holzapfel said the basketball team has never felt slighted.
“Our sports at Notre Dame, all our sports teams are absolutely amazing, and they’re all super-successful in region and they all make amazing state and region runs,” Holtzapfel said. “But every year we always have great student sections at our games, which I think really helps us out, and just all that support every year can encourage us to keep trying.”
Holtzapfel’s 12.9 points a game leads the team; senior Joslyn LaBordeaux-Humphrey is next at 10.0, and Young averages 9.9.
Another question emerges: How much did the Pandas talk about the first regional title since 2013 and fifth altogether. (The others were in 1978, 1987 and 2003.) Stoll’s initial four-word response:
“Yeah, a little bit. One of the goals is to win the region and it hasn’t been done in a while,” Stoll said. “But I always try to move it to where we can’t worry and/or think about that until it comes to us, so our whole goal was just to get better every day.”