Notre Dame boys’ basketball coach J.P. Nerbun missed his team’s previous game.
But he was there Friday when star forward Tyler Byrd flushed home an alley-oop on an assist from Kolby McGowan in the final minute to provide the Irish with a 61-57 win over Chattanooga Christian in Phifer Gymnasium.
“We broke the press, and me and Kolby have a connection that if he throws it up, I’ll throw it down,” said Byrd, who finished with 17 points, including 10 in the final quarter. “We did the same thing against Signal Mountain last year. It sealed the game right there.”
Byrd’s dunk with 22 ticks on the clock pleased his coach, who hadn’t been with the team for the past few days. Nerbun departed Wednesday’s contest against Knox Catholic minutes before tipoff. He needed to go to the hospital.
Not as a patient, but the patient’s husband.
“Melissa’s water broke just minutes before tipoff,” Nerbun said. “We had our first child later that night.”
Alena Rose Nerbun was born at a healthy 9 pounds, 8 ounces on Wednesday night. Nerbun’s life changed. Hoops didn’t matter quite as much that night.
But he still wanted to win Friday.
“I got with the guys and we came up with something for CCS,” Neburn said. “I hadn’t seen them in a few days and Coach (Phil) Towe had been coaching them up. Whatever he told them worked in the end.”
That plan could have been as simple as “get the ball to Byrd,” or it could have been more complex – their defensive scheme rattled CCS coach David Conrady’s squad into at least 15 turnovers.
“Coach Conrady is so tough to play against because he always has a great game plan,” Nerbun said. “It the game had ended with four minutes to go, he would have won.”
The final four minutes ticked off the clock. The Chargers’ defense couldn’t stop Byrd, who scored Notre Dame’s final six points.
“I wasn’t moving around, I was stagnant in the first half, kind of limping on a bad knee,” Byrd said. “Then Coach told me, ‘Move or you won’t be on the floor.'”
In addition to Byrd’s 17 points, C.J. Greer added 15 for the Irish (12-8).
Ryan Rhodes led the Chargers (12-7) with 14 points. John Rhodes, in his second game back from a high-ankle sprain, scored 13 points, as did Austin Vincent and Ben Moore.
“We held Tyler in check for a lot of the game,” Conrady said. “Then he does what he does late, and he’s one of the best players in our city.”
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6484.