PORTSMOUTH — In seemingly one fell swoop, it’s been a busy, eventful and even record-breaking week for the Notre Dame High School girls basketball team.

That’s because the Lady Titans — prior to Saturday’s scheduled and enormous non-league game against visiting Fisher Catholic — captured three weeknight wins, while seeing their veteran head coach return along with a senior sharpshooter setting a new single-game school record.

The Lady Titans, now 11-2, bookended the week with non-stressful Southern Ohio Conference Division I home wins over Green on Monday (51-16) and East (60-14) on Thursday —while vanquishing visiting Ironton by a doubled-up count of 66-33 on Wednesday night.

Those three wins followed just the Lady Titans’ second loss this season —an epic 63-62 double-overtime defeat against 13-win and bigger school Martin County (Ky.) at Shawnee State University.

That occurred last Saturday as part of the Buckeye Elite Classic, and apparently marked Matt Payton’s final game as the interim NDHS head coach.

On Monday, with the Green game, J.D. McKenzie made his return as the Lady Titans’ bench boss —having officially stepped away from the program for the past two months due to family and personal reasons.

The successful mentor McKenzie has guided the Lady Titans for the past 13 seasons, while still serving as principal at Notre Dame High School.

At the time of Payton’s taking over in mid-November, it was believed in some circles that McKenzie’s stepping aside was only temporary.

Turns out that was true.

Payton, who went 8-2 as the Lady Titans’ head coach, returns to his assistant’s role —as his duties have also included video coordinator and statistician.

He was at Portsmouth for eight years with the boys program under head coach Gene Collins, spent one year at Clay assisting Adam Betten, returned to PHS, and is now in his fourth season with the Notre Dame girls.

Under McKenzie’s leadership, the Lady Titans have captured 11 Southern Ohio Conference Division I championships in the past dozen years —sans 2014 when Eastern won it that year.

Their astonishing SOC winning streak currently stands at 121 (3-0 in 2024) —as with the realignment of the SOC into three divisions, the Lady Titans resumed league play this month.

For those into counting, the state record for consecutive conference victories is 141 — by the private-school powerhouse that is indeed Columbus Africentric (2004 thru 2015).

As for regular-season win streaks in general, the Lady Titans tallied 51 in a row — from 2017 thru 2019.

Notre Dame has eight consecutive seasons of at least 20 victories, 13 straight sectional titles, and four Division IV Southeast District championships (2018, 2019, 2020 and 2023).

Twice the Lady Titans have been Region 15 runner-up —in 2020 to Fort Frye, followed by last season to Hiland.

Before the 2010-11 season, Notre Dame’s only league AND sectional championship for girls basketball was in 1984.

But 40 years later, the six senior-laden Lady Titans are one of the top programs in all of Southeastern Ohio —and this season is no exception.

Notre Dame resumed its league winning streak with the win over Green, as five-foot and 11-inch senior Gracie Ashley amounted 25 points against Ironton.

She shot 10-of-19 from the field with one of those being a three-pointer, as she made 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.

She actually, almost, had a triple-double of sorts —in terms of rebounds with eight and even “deflections” with the same amount.

Fellow senior and six-footer Katie Strickland nearly notched a double-double, with 14 points and nine rebounds — and Ella Kirby canned four three-point goals for a dozen points.

Kirby, on Thursday against East, amassed eight three-pointers — setting the new Notre Dame girls record for most made threes in a single game.

She scored 26 of the Lady Titans’ 60 points, thus adding a two-point goal to her eight trifectas.

She attempted 13 three-balls and took two two-point shots, as Ashley added 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

The Lady Titans return home, for the fourth time in a week to play their fifth game in eight days, on Saturday against Fisher Catholic.

Tipoff time for the varsity-only affair is set for 6 p.m.

A month ago, the Lady Irish defeated visiting Notre Dame 44-37 —as Ashley rolled her ankle in that game, despite scoring a tied for game-high 20 points.

The Lady Titans played banged-up that December night, with Bree Hicks out with a concussion —as only four ND players even scored.

It will be the Lady Titans’ fourth meeting against the Irish in 13 months, as Strickland sank the game-winning buzzer-beating shot in last March’s (Division IV) regional semifinal.

Fisher Catholic checks in with a mark of 12-2 —its only two losses coming 11 days apart in December, and against Division IV powers Newark Catholic (56-52) and Waterford (49-35).

As of Thursday night, Newark Catholic (fourth), Waterford (fifth), Notre Dame (17th) and Fisher Catholic (21st) are all ranked in the top 21 of the official Ohio High School Athletic Association Division IV MaxPreps RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) rankings.

Toward the end of the regular season, RPI data will be used to determine seeding for the statewide district tournament draws, which are Feb. 4 for girls and Feb. 11 for boys.

Reach Paul Boggs at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1926, by email at [email protected], or on X @paulboggssports © 2024 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved