Notre Dame senior Gracie Ashley (34)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

WELLSTON — The Notre Dame Lady Titans truly took a serious and business-like approach on Saturday —despite being heavy favorites for a victory over the overwhelming underdog Southern Lady Tornadoes.

That approach, actually, ended up being some of the Lady Titans’ tip-top execution efforts of the entire season.

That’s because the second-seeded Lady Titans trailed nary in their 14th consecutive Division IV Southeast District semifinal, and only pulled away and coasted to a 62-30 runaway win against the 10th-seeded Lady Tornadoes at Wellston High School.

For those into counting, now 19-4 Notre Dame will be competing in its ninth straight district championship tilt (2016 thru 2024) —indeed almost a full decade’s worth of dominance of small-school girls basketball in Southeast Ohio.

The Lady Titans take the floor for Wednesday night’s Division IV district championship bout at Wellston —against a familiar opponent in 20-4 and third-seeded South Gallia.

More on that should-be epic encounter momentarily.

After all, you can’t look toward the future —unless you’ve fully understood the past.

Or, in the Lady Titans’ case, the present day of Saturday.

There was only a 2-2 tie almost a minute-and-a-half into the game, and although the first quarter was closely-contested at 21-12, Notre Dame didn’t deviate from its gameplan on both ends of the court.

Instead, the Lady Titans began to breeze past Southern —and the gusts only picked up into each passing period.

Notre Dame dominated the second stanza 25-8, and opened up a 46-20 advantage at halftime.

In the third frame, the Lady Titans took the margin up to 59-23 —as the only Lady Tornado tally in the quarter was a Jaylyn Hupp three-point goal at the 6:42 mark.

For the final 10 minutes, after ND senior Gracie Ashley amassed her final two of a perfect 5-of-5 free throws, the game was played under the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s running-clock rule.

In the final quarter, Notre Dame’s reserves saw the majority of the quick minutes —as Southern sported a roster of only eight on Saturday.

The Lady Titans’ largest lead stood at 62-23 —before the Lady Tornadoes scored the final seven points.

Notre Dame was playing its first game in exactly nine days, and after the opening canto, did all it wanted to do.

NDHS veteran head coach J.D. McKenzie, the Lady Titans’ mentor of the past decade-and-a-half, mentioned it was some of their best basketball played this season.

The Lady Tornadoes turned the ball over 23 times, resulting in 13 Notre Dame steals.

Southern shot a respectable 44-percent on 11-of-25, but was definitely no match for Notre Dame —which shot 56-percent overall (22-of-39), a warm on a snowy day 59-percent (16-of-27) from inside the arc, and an even 50-percent (6-of-12) outside of it.

“I thought offensively, especially in the first half, I thought we played really well, shot the ball really well, and executed as good as we have all year. Defensively, our on-the-ball defense was great, as good as it’s been all year. Kaylyn Darden on the ball today was awesome. Late in the fourth quarter, we had only given up the one basket in the second half,” said McKenzie. “Cleaned up some things off the ball and some second-chance opportunities, it was a pretty good game.”

So much so that all 13 of the Lady Titans played, and seven scored —with each amounting at least three points.

That included freshman Jaysa Bryant, whose three-pointer made it 62-23 — giving the Lady Titans their largest advantage.

“It’s great when everybody can get into the game and have an opportunity to play in a district game. I can’t say enough about our second team in practice this past week. They’ve given us a great look and have done a great job and have really helped us improve in this week we had between games,” said McKenzie. We had some really good practices.”

And, good practices often results in good play.

Ashley, the standout senior forward and sure-fire first team all-Southeast District Division IV selection, poured in 22 points to pace the winners —with eight field goals to supplement her 5-of-5 free throws.

Fellow senior and standout sharpshooter Ella Kirby connected for four trifectas, combined with two third-frame foul shots towards 14 points.

Kickouts to Kirby for open three-balls, or wide-open underneath layups, were the Lady Titans’ total offensive package.

“We ran some stuff to get Ella (Kirby) some open looks, and our girls did a good job of pushing it down the paint and kicking out to her, and she hit the open shots. I said at halftime that when we’re executing our offense, I want a layup or an open three from Ella. If we’re doing those two things, then our offense is working great. That’s the looks we were getting,” said McKenzie. “We were getting to the hole or Ella was shooting a three. That’s what we want to do offensively. Once we adjusted to their speed, and made a few changes here and there, we settled in well.”

Notre Dame junior Bree Hicks (21)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

Annabelle Ball scored seven on 5-of-7 first-half free throws, the final of which was the final point of an old-fashioned three-point play.

Katie Strickland and Kaylyn Darden dropped in three field goals apiece for six points, and Bree Hicks had two first-half baskets for four counters.

Kiersten Rose with 11 and Hupp with 10, including two of the Lady Tornadoes’ three three-pointers, spearheaded Southern’s last game —as the Purple and Gold finished 7-17.

But, it’s the Blue and Gold going back to the district final — for the ninth year in a row.

Notre Dame junior Taylor Lasswell (1)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

The Lady Titans get the Red and Gold of South Gallia, which along with Notre Dame were the Southeast District’s Division IV champions last year.

On Feb. 10, and after announcement of the Southeast District’s Division IV tournament pairings, the Lady Rebels played at Notre Dame —and won 64-62.

Although, Notre Dame did play short-handed that Saturday afternoon —without the senior point guard Ball, and the only non-senior starter in Hicks playing hurt.

McKenzie said Notre Dame didn’t show its proverbial poker hand against the Lady Rebels.

Notre Dame freshman Jaysa Bryant (3)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

“Don’t want to use excuses, but the last time we played South Gallia, we weren’t 100-percent healthy. We didn’t have Annabelle (Ball) and Bree (Hicks) was banged up. Plus we didn’t show everything, because we thought this matchup was probably going to happen and knew it was a possibility,” he said. “Did we want to win that game? Yes. Did we have a chance to win that game? Yes. Did we do everything we could or throw everything at them? No we didn’t. But we’re looking forward to playing them again in the district finals.”

Indeed, ALL the chips are at the table’s center on Wednesday night —for another Division IV Southeast District championship.

Tipoff is set for 8:15 p.m. at Wellston High School.

* * *

Southern 12 8 3 7—30

Notre Dame 21 25 13 3 —62

SOUTHERN 30 (7-17)

Michelle Adkins 1 0-0 3, Jaylyn Hupp 3 2-2 10, Sydney Stout 0 2-2 2, Kiersten Rose 5 1-2 11, Timberlyn Templeton 0 0-0 0, Peyton Kranyik 0 0-0 0, Mia Little 0 0-0 0, Kianna Rose 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 11 5-6 30; Three-point goals: 3 (Jaylyn Hupp 2, Michelle Adkins 1)

NOTRE DAME 62 (19-4)

Taylor Lasswell 0 0-0 0, Lilly Madden 0 0-1 0, Jaysa Bryant 1 0-4 3, Ella Kirby 4 2-2 14, Carmen Burchett 0 0-0 0, Ryan Purcell 0 0-0 0, Kailee Ogier 0 0-0 0, Savannah Holtgrewe 0 0-0 0, Bree Hicks 2 0-0 4, Annabelle Ball 1 5-7 7, Kaylyn Darden 3 0-0 6, Gracie Ashley 8 5-5 22, Katie Strickland 3 0-0 6; TOTALS 22 12-19 62; Three-point goals: 6 (Ella Kirby 4, Gracie Ashley and Jaysa Bryant 1 apiece)

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