So much for teams shooting lower percentages at Rupp Arena.
Notre Dame Academy burned the nets down on Wednesday night in the girls KHSAA Clark’s Pump-n-Shop Sweet 16. They hit 17 three-pointers on their way to a 77-38 victory over Pikeville to advance to the quarterfinals.
The 17 triples made broke Mercer County’s record against Mercy in the state championship game in 2018.
“I know how hard these girls work. They get up shots up all the time, staying after practice all the time,” Pandas coach George Stoll said. “They just shoot, shoot, shoot and in games like this, it pays off. I’m really proud of the whole entire team today.”
It was a bit of a domino effect in the 3-point blitz. Early on it was Sarah Young, then it was Emma Holtzapfel, Amelia Stallard followed as they all hit their fair share from deep. Young went 4-for-5, Holtzapfel 5-of-6, Stallard 5-of-6 and even Kylee Wagner and Joslyn LaBordeaux-Humphrey got in on the action. The Pandas had 22 assists on 25 made field goals. They hit 17-of-26 from deep.
“We were playing really selfless. We were finding each other,” Young said. “Most of our threes were open. Once someone was hitting they would start to deny and then we would just pass to the next person. We just sort of had next man up mentality and we got it going.”
Wagner’s triple with 3:48 left in the game set the record. The outcome wasn’t in question at the time as they led 71-32.
It took a little bit, but once Notre Dame was able to make their presence felt defensively, they started to roll. Trailing 7-6, the Pandas finished the first quarter on a 13-0 run and rolled from there.
“Maybe it was a little bit of nerves, maybe feeling them out,” Stoll said. “At the beginning, we weren’t as aggressive as we needed to be. Give Kylee Wagner credit. She came in and she kind of drove up a spark in there. We upped being physical and just kind of made them feel us.”
They led 36-16 at the half, 57-30 after three and got the game to a running clock with 4:59 left in the fourth on a Stallard jumper.
How about this stat line for the first half? Notre Dame was 10-of-15 from three in the first half. From two? They were 1-for-7.
“Not the most complete half that I would like, but the second half we did a better job of a little more balanced scoring,” Stoll said.
Young finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, 11 and five of those coming in the first. Holtzapfel and Stallard had 19 apiece, Holtzapfel doing most of her damage in the first half with 17 points while Stallard had all 19 of her points in the second half. Young and Holtzapfel had 33 of the 36 Panda points in the first half.
Regardless of what happens the rest of the tournament, Notre Dame is taking some history home with them.
“It feels so good. That’s what we work for,” Stallard said. “Everyone can shoot the three on our team. If you stop one of us, another one’s gonna step up and start hitting. It’s not really something that we focus on, like breaking the record, but it’s always nice to have a little fun with it.”
They’ll face the Taylor County-West Jessamine winner on Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals.
PANDAS 77, LADY PANTHERS 38
NOTRE DAME — 19-17-21-20 — 77
PIKEVILLE — 7-9-14-8 — 38
Scoring
Notre Dame (77) — Stallard 19, Holtzapfel 19, Young 16, LaBordeaux-Humphrey 9, Wagner 8, Middendorf 4, Mauller 2
Pikeville (38) — Alvin 21, Walters 6, Oliver 4, Woods 2, Rogers 2, Compton 2, Patton 1
Game Stats
Field Goals: Notre Dame 25/46, Pikeville 15/49
3-Pointers: Notre Dame 17/26, Pikeville 3/10
Free Throws: Notre Dame 10/11, Pikeville 5/7
Rebounds: Notre Dame 33, Pikeville 23
Assists: Notre Dame 22, Pikeville 7
Turnovers: Notre Dame 11, Pikeville 11
Steals: Notre Dame 9, Pikeville 4
Blocked Shots: Notre Dame 4, Pikeville 2
Fouls: Notre Dame 9, Pikeville 10
Records: Notre Dame 25-7, Pikeville 22-9