BIG 2ND EFFORT LIFTS ND TO STATE

PARK HILLS -- The Notre Dame Lady Bulldogs appear to enjoy doing things the hard way.

In their 2A quarterfinal Saturday night at Park Hills High school, Notre Dame fell behind the Lutheran North Lady Crusaders by 14 points before storming back in the second half for a 56-44 win.

The victory advances the Lady Bulldogs (21-9) into the Final Four in Columbia for the second time in the last three years. Notre Dame will play Friday at 8:05 p.m. at the Hearnes Center in Columbia.

Lutheran North ended its season with an 18-12 record.

Trailing 32-18 at halftime, sophomore Randi Senciboy led the Lady Bulldogs' comeback in the third quarter with eight of her game-high 16 points. Senciboy drained two 3-pointers in the early part of the third quarter to bring the Lady Bulldogs to within 34-26 at the 3:40 mark.

Notre Dame held Lutheran North to just two points in the quarter as the Lady Crusaders had trouble with full-court pressure applied by the Lady Bulldogs. Lutheran North made just 1-of-11 shots in the quarter.

With time running out in the third, Senciboy followed her own missed 3-pointer and scored on a short jumper with one second left to knot the score at 34-34.

"Boy, Randi had a good night," said Notre Dame coach Jerry Grim with a big grin. "She was a little off in the first half, but in the second half she came out and did a better job."

Senciboy continued her hot shooting in the fourth quarter with a bucket at the 7:45 mark to give the Lady Bulldogs their first lead, 36-34, since early in the first quarter. Lutheran North never held the lead again, shooting just 4-of-21 in the final quarter.

Following a 13-5 run, ended by a basket by Jennifer Glueck at the 2:51 mark, the Lady Bulldogs led 49-39.

"We lost the game in the third quarter and then just panicked in the fourth," said Lutheran North coach Dave McCollister.

The loss of senior guard Rachel Mueller in the third quarter, due to a lost contact lens, was a severe blow to the Lady Crusaders. Without a spare contact lens, Mueller played the fourth quarter with only one lens.

"We needed Rachel," said McCollister. "She's one of our better ballhandlers and outside shooters."

The Lady Bulldogs also shut down Lutheran North's super sophomore Jana Tillman, who came into the game averaging over 20 points a game. After scoring 12 points in the first half, Tillman was shut out in the second half.

"We've had teams slow her down before, but generally some of our other players come through," McCollister said. "This time they didn't."

Grim rotated different players on Tillman as the Lady Bulldogs played a diamond-and-one defense.

"We tried to keep the ball out of the middle," said Grim, crediting Jill Huber with doing a good job of staying with Tillman. "In the second half most of (Tillman's) shots came from the outside, and that's what we wanted."

Jazele Greer scored 10 points for Lutheran North.

As awful as the Lady Crusaders shot in the second half, Notre Dame was just as bad before halftime. The Lady Bulldogs shot just 20 percent form the field of 6-of-30 shooting, including a miserable 3-of-18 (16 percent) in the second quarter.

Notre Dame's Melissa Maurer scored six points in the first half with two 3-pointers. Maurer ended as the only other double digit scorer for Notre Dame with 10 points.

Since most of the scoring was done on only one end of the court, Grim figured it must have been the basket causing all the bad shooting.

"I don't know what it was," Grim said Grim jokingly. "I'm just glad we had the good basket in the second half."