The Boyd-Buchanan boys' basketball most valuable player didn't play Thursday night.
She didn't even make it to the game.
Jordan Roddenberry delivered her first child for coach Zach Roddenberry on Tuesday morning.
The Buccaneers - missing their coach all week so he could be with Jordan and newborn Kennedy - defeated Notre Dame 81-71 at Boyd-Buchanan on Thursday.
"You can go through practice all week and goof because Coach isn't here, but we didn't want to let him down," said junior Cade Evans, who led the Bucs with 28 points. "It was kind of like having a substitute teacher - you'd better behave."
Kendall Toney and Mike Kirk prepared Boyd-Buchanan for the season opener. They may need a raise based on how the Bucs played Thursday.
Parris Clarke added 18 points and Adam Mullinax scored 13.
"Give a lot of credit to my assistants for getting the guys ready, and give the guys credit for hustling and flying around," Coach Roddenberry said. "Our energy and scrappiness got us this win."
Notre Dame coach J.P. Nerbun will go through a similar situation in a couple of months. His wife is expecting their first child on Jan. 25.
"It's kind of cool," Nerbun said. "We're similar in age and in similar situations. I may have to ask him for a little advice when he gets time."
The Irish were led by 35 points from Tyler Byrd, who made a pair of 3-pointers and had four slam-dunks - one of which didn't count and earned him a delay-of-game technical. He had a two-handed tip-dunk as well as an alley-oop from Davian Wheeler, who scored 14 points.
"Our young guys did a nice job tonight," said Nerbun, who has four players on his roster competing tonight for the football team. "We're starting to find our roles."
The Irish found themselves trailing 40-39 at halftime. Boyd-Buchanan struck the first blow of the second half when Evans scored nine straight points and pushed the margin to 51-40 midway through the third quarter.
"He's such an energy guy and he can take over a game," Roddenberry said. "His bringing everyone back helped more than anything."
The Bucs' lead reached 15 points early in the fourth quarter as they tried to pull away from the Irish despite going 4-of-15 from the free-throw line in the final quarter.
"I'm going to borrow a line from Kevin Durant and say that my wife is the real MVP," Roddenberry said. "The delivery happened so quick. I was expecting screaming and pushing and everything.
"It's been an exciting week."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484.