The Notre Dame College Falcons could have used the momentum from Monday night's win over Cleveland State to carry them into the season opener against Seton Hill at Morrow Field House in the Butler County Chamber of Commerce Conference Challenge on the campus of Slippery Rock University.A disappointing effort led to a 100-73 loss and a rough season opener.
"We learned a very valuable lesson tonight you can't cheat the game, we can talk about X's and O's all you want but we didn't compete at a high enough level to beat anyone tonight, Coach Mark Richmond explained. "Our energy, effort, and attitude wasn't good enough. We didn't handle success from winning a scrimmage on Monday night and use it as momentum to start the season."
After Samuel Tabe put the first two points on the board for the Griffins NDC got a 3-pointer from DeAirius Barker to take the lead. Jaedon Willis gave NDC a 9-8 lead just over two minutes in. Jamarr Talbert hit a 3-pointer to make it 12-10 Falcons. After a Tyland Crawford layup and a jumper by Willis NDC had a 16-13 advantage. The lead would grow to six (21-15) as Daylin Lee buried a triple. Willis hit another jumper to make it 23-18 at the 10:47 mark of the opening half. A 7-0 run by Seton Hill made it 25-23 before Willis tied it with a pair of free throws at the 7:33 mark of the half. A 6-0 Griffins run made it 31-25 before another Willis 3-ball. After the two teams traded buckets to make it 33-30 the Griffins went on a 7-0 run to stretch the lead to 10. The Seton Hill zone gave NDC fits all night. The Griffins would eventually take a 53-36 lead into halftime.
NDC was led by Willis with 19 points in the opening half, while Crawford added six. The Falcons shot 44.8 percent from the field, 38.4 percent from the 3-point line (5-13) and 83 percent (5-6) at the free throw line. They had 14 turnovers in the opening stanza.
Tabe and Sean Dillon led Seton Hill with 10 in the opening stanza, while Ryan Meis scored nine. They shot 56 percent from the field, 33 percent from the 3-point line, and 60 percent (3-5) from the free throw line in the opening stanza.
The second half was all Griffins as NDC tried to mount a comeback but could not take care of the ball or get stops when needed. The largest Griffins lead was 33 points as they cruised to the 100-73 victory.
Willis paced the Falcons with 33 points, while Kaleb Torrence scored all 10 of his points in the second half. NDC shot 45.6 percent from the field, 39.1 percent (9-23) from the 3-point line, and 70.6 percent (12-17) from the free throw line. NDC won the rebounding battle 33-31. They had 9 assists and 30 turnovers in the game.
Richmond talked about it afterwords:
"30 turnovers in very disappointing. We tried to hit home runs and thread the needle because we got so far behind. We tried to get it all back at once and a zone forces you to be patient."
The Griffins had six players score in double figures paced by 17 from Meis, Green added 16, Dillon netted 12, while the trio of Tabe, Jimmy Moon, and Michael Joiner all tallied 10. Seton Hill shot 55.9 percent from the field, 45.9 percent (17-37) from the 3-point line, and 63.6 percent (7-11) at the free throw line. They had 25 assists and 18 turnovers as a team. They also picked up 21 steals.
NDC will be back in action for day two of the Butler County Chamber of Commerce Conference Challenge tomorrow when they take on host Slippery Rock. Tip time is set for 6 PM.
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