Notre Dame girls stun 15th-ranked Holy Trinity
- Dec 12, 2023 Updated 29 min ago
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Notre Dame’s Taryn Stephens (2), left, and Aviana West (23) along with teammates celebrate an overtime win against Holy Trinity Tuesday in Burlington.
Notre Dame’s Lauren Krieger (15) drives around Holy Trinity’s Mary Kate Bendlage (13) Tuesday in Burlington.
Notre Dame defenders, from left, Nadiya Jones (1) amd Lauren Krieger (15) guard Holy Trinity’s Teagan Snaadt (4) Tuesday at Father Minett Gymnasium in Burlington.
Notre Dame’s Aviana West (23) looks for a shot against Holy Trinity’s Presley Myers (14) Tuesday in Burlington.
Notre Dame’s Anna Engberg (4) is double teamed by Holy Trinity’s Mary Kate Bendlage (13) and Natalie Randolph (11) Tuesday in Burlington.
Lauren Krieger wanted a second chance.
After missing a shot at the end of regulation time that would have ended Tuesday's game, the Notre Dame High School senior guard wasn't about to miss again.
Krieger scored on a layin with 15 seconds left in overtime, then sank a pair of free throws to seal the Nikes' 61-57 upset of Class 1A's 15th-ranked Holy Trinity in an SEI Super Conference South Division game at Father Minett Gymnasium.
Just four days after a stunning 15-point loss to Danville, the Nikes were on the delivering end of this upset.
"I felt really confident. I've put in all the work, so I knew I was the right person for the job. I'm really glad it was me," said Krieger, who scored a team-high 21 points for the Nikes. "I've practiced a lot to make those shots. So it was nice to come back and make those free throws at the end to seal the game. My teammates and I are all trying to put it together and win for all of us."
With the game on the line, there was no one Notre Dame coach Cory Stephens trusted more than Krieger.
"Lo is our go-to. She's going to hit those free throws," Stephens said. "I can't say enough about Lo. I told her we're unselfish. That's the only way we're going to win. We're going to win as a team. I told her she needs to be aggressive, but also trust her teammates."
Holy Trinity (5-1 overall, 4-1 South Division) knotted the game at 50 on a drive down the lane by junior guard Teagan Snaadt with 5.8 seconds left in regulation.
Stephens called timeout to set up a final play.
Krieger got the ball and drove the lane, but her potential game-winning shot rolled off the rim as the horn sounded, sending the game to an extra four minutes.
"We didn't do a very good job of recognizing the shooter and getting help-side defense on the drives," Holy Trinity coach Tony Johnson said. "They were just lobbing it over the top a few times. When you get dribble penetration that deep, you're going to have to collapse and then that leaves somebody else open."
Notre Dame (4-1, 4-1) trailed for the first time since early in the fourth quarter when Presley Myers sank a pair of free throws to open the overtime scoring.
Taryn Stephens drove the lane for a layup to knot the game, and Krieger sank two free throws to give the Nikes the lead for good.
The guard-savvy Nikes were able to do the majority of their damage in the paint against the taller Crusaders.
Notre Dame senior Aviana West scored 16 points, many of them off nifty passes from Taryn Stephens.
"Taryn throws great passes. Aviana sealed. They were trying to play over the top. She can catch the ball and she is strong enough to lay it up through them," Coach Stephens said. "This is her first year playing since junior high. She's doing a great job. She's getting physical. She's learning the game a little bit more now. She can score if she gets the ball in the right spot."
Mary Kate Bendlage led all scorers with 22 points for the Crusaders, but she was held scoreless for a 14-minute stretch from midway through the third quarter until a pair of free throws in the final minute of overtime.
Natalie Randolph added 15 points for Holy Trinity.
"We were out of whack on offense all night, I thought, from start to the finish," Johnson said. "I told the girls we're 5-1. We've got 15 more to go in the season. We'll learn from this, and we'll move on."
Stephens and West each scored 16 points for the Nikes, while Anna Engberg scored six.
"I trust my teammates entirely. They know when to get me the ball and when not to. They do a good job bringing the ball down the court," West said. "We really needed that to give us some motivation for our next game."