Boyd Buchanan senior guard Luke Stum believed Saturday night’s basketball game would be a fight to the finish.
Stum was proven right as coach Josh Templeton’s Buccaneers overcame an 11-point deficit in the second half to win the program’s first Division II-A East Region championship, 48-46 over visiting Notre Dame as a 3-point heave by the Fighting Irish glanced off the right side of the backboard as the buzzer sounded.
“Coach is big on boxing and before the game we watched a fight between Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward,” Stum said. “Gatti broke his hand in the fight but came back from it to win. We knew something like that would happen in this game and it would be an absolute dogfight, but we kept our head up and stayed composed.”
Notre Dame senior guard Bryson Smith scored his team’s first eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers, on his way to a game-high 13, and Cal Price’s long-range shooting and a tough layup before halftime helped the Irish build a 22-13 lead entering the break.
Boyd Buchanan (18-8) fought back as sophomore forward Jacob Shockley dominated in the paint, scoring six straight points to aid an 11-0 run that tied the game at 24 with 2:20 left in the third quarter.