Much as it had done all season, just when things looked worst, the Notre Dame High School boys’ basketball team found a way to make things interesting.
The Fighting Irish trailed by 13 points midway through the fourth quarter before rallying to send the game into overtime thanks to a Herculean effort by Stedman Ford. But Cannon County’s free-throw marksmanship was too much to overcome and the Lions claimed a 73-59 Region 4-AA quarterfinal victory.
With two other Irish starters having fouled out, Ford scored 22 of his game-high 31 points in the fourth quarter, including 16 straight at one point. But it was Shaqualm McCoy’s putback at the buzzer that forced overtime. The Lions opened the extra period with a 3-pointer by Jared Nave and a steal and layup from Brian Cripps to put Notre Dame back on its heels.
“It took so much for us to just get back into the game and tie it at the end, I think emotionally we were just drained,” Irish coach Brad Harris said. “Once we got down by five in the first few seconds of overtime, it was just too much for our guys to come back again. We were just out of gas.
“But I couldn’t be prouder of a group of guys to overcome the loss of several starters to injury and win a second straight district. They never gave up this year.”