COOKEVILLE, Tenn. — After battling toe to toe for a little more than three quarters with one of Tennessee’s perennial powers in boys’ basketball, Notre Dame stumbled only briefly in the fourth quarter.
But that three-minute lapse was all it took for Goodpasture to take command in Saturday’s BlueCross Basketball State Championships at Tennessee Tech and eventually pull away for a 59-48 win that secured its second TSSAA Division II-A title in the past three seasons.
“They have a lot of different ways they can beat you,” said Notre Dame coach Jonathan Adams, who guided the Fighting Irish to the first state title game appearance in program history. “It’s pick your poison because they have great guards and great post players. We did about the best job of guarding them that we could.
“And we gave ourselves a chance. We were tied at the half, down one going into the fourth, but then we just couldn’t sustain it.”
Shortly after the Fighting Irish (24-10) had taken a one-point lead in the first minute of the fourth, Goodpasture (33-2) answered with a 12-2 run and never led by less than seven points the rest of the way.