The Notre Dame College Falcons and Lourdes University Gray Wolves played Monday night at Murphy Gym. The Falcons fell 81-71. With the loss NDC dropped to 5-2. Lourdes improved to 7-3 after the victory for them.
Coach Mark Richmond was blunt about this one:
"In basketball you get what you deserve. We tried to flip the switch a few times. We knew what this game was going to be going in. You got to play 40 minutes. I tried to tell our guys that was a really big game for Lourdes, "Richmond explained.
The game would go back and forth in the early stages. After a Daylin Lee 3-pointer it was tied at 12 with 14:47 to go in the opening stanza. Lourdes would score the next seven points and lead 19-12 before Willis cut it to four with another 3-pointer that made it 19-15. After a Lourdes bucket stretched the lead to six NDC would get a 3-pointer by John Godinez, a jumper by DeAirius Barker and another 3-pointer by Willis to go up 23-21 with 10:31 in the opening half. NDC led 25-23 at the 9:42 mark of the half. A Willis layup for the Falcons made it a 30-29 deficit before a 10-0 run by the Gray Wolves made it 40-29. After being down 42-31 NDC would close the half on a 8-0 run to get to within three (42-39.)
Lourdes shot 65 percent in the opening half (17-26) including 56 percent (5-9) from the 3-point line. They shot at a 75 percent clip (3-4) from the free throw line in the first 20 minutes.
Richmond talked about his team knowing what kind of game it was going to be:
" We knew they were going to throw it in the post a lot. We had a game plan to front guys or have a guy behind them on the backside but we just did not execute at all."
McRay White led the Gray Wolves with 10 points in the opening half, while Joey Holifield added seven.
NDC was led by Jaedon Willis with 13 points in the opening stanza, while Tyland Crawford and Daylin Lee each scored seven. The Falcons shot 50 percent from the field and 54 percent (7-13) from the 3-point line in the half. They made both free throw attempts.
The Lourdes lead would grow to 10 (56-46) after a Charles Swain 3-pointer with 15:45 to go. Willis would hit two more 3-pointers sandwiched in between a couple baskets by Lourdes to make it 60-52. The Falcons would get to within six (65-59) with 8:27 on the clock after Sampson drilled a 3-pointer But the Gray Wolves responded with the next six points. The Falcons would again get to within six (75-69) after a Willis jumper with 48 seconds but that is as close as NDC would get.
Willis paced the Falcons with 25 points and four steals, Sampson added 11 points, five rebounds, and four steals while Daylin Lee tallied 10. Godinez added eight points and a team leading seven assists. NDC shot 44 percent from both the field and the 3-point line. They converted all four attempts at the free throw line.
The Gray Wolves shot 60 percent from the field, 35 percent (6-17) from the 3-point line, and shot at a 61 percent clip (11-18) at the free throw line. The Gray Wolves dominated the glass winning the rebounding battle 35-25. They were paced by Nick Welch with 19 points and eight rebounds, McRay White was perfect from the field (7-7) on his way to 17 points, Joey Holifield added 15, and Jackie Harris scored 12. Brett Lauf led the team in assists with eight.
Richmond talked about the night:
" We just couldn't get anything going. We have been fortunate of late to win a few games where we have not played our best. Our guys just didn't seem ready to play. Lourdes controlled the pace and got 50 points in the paint."
He continued and talked about his team trying to get it all back at once:
" I feel like we tried to score like 6-8 points at a time, and tried to get all back at once. We just didn't get enough stops. Like I said earlier you get what you deserve in basketball, and they wanted this game more than we did. They even got sped up and lost some of their aggressiveness late in the game but when the other team is scoring 60 percent of the time you can't pick up any momentum, and you have to take the ball out so you can't get out in transition. We blew some late assignments and that sealed it.
NDC will be back in action Wednesday when they host Davis & Elkins. Tip time is slated for 7:30 PM.
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