The highlighted word in George Stoll’s postgame interview was confidence.
Not many teams in the state can say they’re playing with the confidence level like Notre Dame Academy is right now. The Pandas went wire-to-wire in a 60-43 victory over Holy Cross on Thursday night at Beechwood for the 35th District championship.
They jumped out to a 18-2 lead at the end of the first quarter and never looked back.
“Just playing with a lot of confidence,” Stoll said. “Played hard, we were in the right spots a lot. We were in the right spots a lot on both ends of the floor and just playing with a lot of confidence right now. That’s the main thing.”
Everything was clicking for Notre Dame in the game’s first eight minutes. Three-point shots, transition offense and stingy defense. They hit 7-of-11 shots from the field, 4-of-6 from deep and had six assists. The ball was being sprayed around all over and Emma Holtzapfel, Erin McGraw and Sarah Young made them pay. McGraw was the catalyst in spreading the wealth, finishing with 12 points and eight assists and earning District Tournament MVP.
“We knew they were going to be really physical, but everybody stepped up,” McGraw said. “We all moved for each other and got open. When we get hot like that we all feed off each other’s energy.”
Holtzapfel finished with 16 points to lead the Pandas while Young added 14 points and 13 rebounds.
“Our confidence carried over into the beginning of the game,” Holtzapfel said. “I knew in warm ups that everyone was going to be ready for this game. So that’s exactly what we did and started off great.”
In this rivalry, no lead is safe and Holy Cross started to chip away in the second with a 12-2 run to get within 22-14. But the Pandas closed the half with six of the final eight points and for all of the Indians effort only put a dent in the massive first quarter deficit by four points, trailing 28-16 at the break.
The Pandas would lead by as much as 20 in the third. An example of everything going right: Young banked in a 3-pointer to make it 41-21.
“Murphy’s Law. Whatever could go wrong was going wrong in those first eight minutes,” Indians coach Ted Arlinghaus said. “Us not making shots, them making shots, you name it. It was just wasn’t going well. We didn’t play well. I didn’t coach well.”
The Indians made another surge in the fourth to get within nine after an Alyssa Arlinghaus 3-pointer to make it 50-41 with 3:45 to play, but Notre Dame was just too sound on the night to let anything creep any further. They’d knock down 8-of-10 from the free throw line in the closing minutes to seal the deal and win back-to-back district titles.
The win was their seventh in the last eight games, the lone loss to the No. 1 team in the state, George Rogers Clark. Some of those seven wins include ranked teams Bishop Brossart, Campbell County, Sacred Heart and Holy Cross, the second time they’ve taken down the Indians this season. Holy Cross had won three of four in the series from 2023 to 2024, but the Pandas have taken the last four meetings between the two.
“I knew it was going to take us some time with just me being a new coach coming into it late,” Stoll said. “I knew we were going to be better towards the end of the year than the beginning of the year. I knew that was going to happen and I think right now we’re just playing really well together. We’re a good basketball team.”
Now the two move forward to the 9th Region tournament, slated to begin on Sunday. Notre Dame will get either Cooper, St. Henry or Newport Central Catholic, the three runner-ups in the 33rd, 34th and 36th District, respectively.
Holy Cross is looking at a quarterfinal matchup against either Ryle, Dixie Heights of Highlands, the champions of their respective districts in the 33rd, 34th and 36th.
“We learned today things we could work on and I was proud with how we fought back,” Arlinghaus said. “Tonight just wasn’t our night. They played well and we didn’t execute the way I wish we would have. But I was happy the way we responded. This was the first game all year we were down that big where even in our four losses we had chances to win. This was the first game we didn’t have the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead in the fourth.”
Jai Johnson led Holy Cross with 16 points, Alyssa Arlinghaus adding 14.
The region tournament draw is Friday at 4 p.m at Holmes.
PHOTOS: Slideshow provided by Charles Bolton
PANDAS 60, INDIANS 43
HOLY CROSS — 2-14-13-14 — 43
NOTRE DAME — 18-10-17-15 — 60
Scoring
Holy Cross (43) — Johnson 16, Arlinghaus 14, Eberhard 6, Hunt 4, Sturgeon 3
Notre Dame (60) — Holtzapfel 16, Young 14, McGraw 12, LaBordeaux-Humphrey 8, Stallard 7, Wagner 2, Lawrie 1
Game Stats
Field Goals: Holy Cross 15/56, Notre Dame 18/40
3-Pointers: Holy Cross 4/19, Notre Dame 8/18
Free Throws: Holy Cross 9/9, Notre Dame 16/20
Rebounds: Holy Cross 26, Notre Dame 37
Assists: Holy Cross 4, Notre Dame 14
Turnovers: Holy Cross 11, Notre Dame 21
Steals: Holy Cross 12, Notre Dame 4
Blocked Shots: Holy Cross 1, Notre Dame 3
Fouls: Holy Cross 17, Notre Dame 8
Records: Holy Cross 26-5, Notre Dame 21-7