Soon after his team knocked off the newly anointed No. 1 program in the state, Notre Dame’s Tim Vaughn took joy in a humongous achievement.
The 6-foot-4 sophomore played all out on the court as he led the Irish to a 40-33 victory at Boyd Buchanan in an intense Division II-A region battle Tuesday night.
Vaughn flashed his toughness under the left side of the basket as he absorbed a hard foul with his shot rolling in as he crashed to the floor out of bounds. His teammates quickly sprinted to celebrate and help him up before he sank a free throw to put the Irish up 34-25 with 3:50 left to play.
“I love it. I love it. I love it,” Vaughn said. “To win this big of a game feels great. We lost to Boyd by four the first time, but we came back and played hard. I had been playing weak for the past few games, and I just got tired off it. So I got aggressive.
“I trusted my coach. He told me to play aggressive and keep attacking and to hit my free throws. That’s what I did.”