Tuesday night might have been the season opener for the Notre Dame and Red Bank boys’ basketball teams, but the intensity level was in midseason form.
Defensive pressure on both ends of the floor forced 47 total turnovers, and Notre Dame held off a second-half charge by host Red Bank to win 53-44.
“I was really proud of how hard we played,” said Notre Dame coach Jonathan Adams. “We played through a lot of mistakes and I was proud of the effort that we brought, especially early in the season.”
Red Bank got off to an electric start with two monstrous dunks in the first four minutes that energized an already boisterous crowd, as the Lions jumped to an early 10-3 lead. A late 6-0 run by Notre Dame, however, pulled the Irish to within one after a quarter.
After missing all six shots from behind the arc in the first quarter, the Irish heated up on 3-pointers in the second, going 2-of-5. Notre Dame senior Derwin Lewis scored nine of his game-high 24 points as Notre Dame outscored the Lions 14-5 in the period to take a 23-15 halftime lead.