ND finds tall order in St. Joe's

St. Joseph's Academy was not head and shoulders better than Notre Dame Saturday.

But being head and shoulders taller didn't hurt.

With 6-foot-5 sophomore Erin McCarthy leading the way, the Angels held off a determined but undersized Notre Dame girls' basketball team 72-57 at Notre Dame Regional High School.

Despite a Notre Dame game plan aimed her way, McCarthy finished with a game-high 21 points, 14 rebounds and nine blocked shots.

"It's a nice Angel from heaven," St. Joseph's coach Julie Goessling-Matheny said with a laugh as she talked about her big-winged player. "This was definitely her best game of this season so far. She's just getting better with each game."

St. Joseph's, with its unique weapon and a solid cast, came in as the top-ranked team in St. Louis. The Angels improved to 5-0, while Notre Dame, last year's Class 2 state champion, fell to 1-4.

"Last year was the first time I've ever seen any girl that big," Notre Dame coach Jerry Grim said. "She just takes care of the inside for them."

"She's huge," said Notre Dame senior Ali Tyson, who at 5-foot-8 was just 3 inches shorter than the Bulldogs' tallest player. "She blocked me like 7,000 times."

The Angel sophomore, who isn't yet old enough to drive, is already a hot commodity among colleges. She averaged almost a triple-double as a freshman.

"Tennessee hasn't called yet, but she's hearing," Goessling-Matheny said.

The Bulldogs, employing a matchup zone, got good news and bad news in the opening quarter. The good news was the game plan of denying the ball to McCarthy worked well. She was held scoreless in the period. The bad news: The Angels still battled the Bulldogs to a 15-15 tie.

"You automatically assume that people who are 6-5 should just be able to dominate," Goessling-Matheny said. "She's getting there, but her surrounding cast is making it a little easier for her to take her time."

Katie Heidenreich and Lainey Wissehr added 12 and 10 points, respectively, for the Angels.

McCarthy found the scoring column in the second quarter, including a basket with 3:47 left in the half that provided a 27-19 lead. Notre Dame then put together a 10-0 run, with bookend 3-pointers by Sommer McCauley and Sierra Ellis, the latter giving Notre Dame a 29-27 lead with 2:05 left in the half. It proved to be the Bulldogs' final lead.

Kalei Lowes tied the score with a running one-hander in the lane before McCarthy gave a glimpse of things to come with the go-ahead basket with 18 seconds left. McCarthy made the basket look easy, grabbing a looping inbounds pass from the baseline and swishing a 10-footer for a 31-29 lead. It was a sneak preview of things to come.

"I thought for a while we did a good job on her," Grim said. "We blocked, we got weak side help and did everything we needed to do, and it paid off for a while. But down the stretch she was just too big."

Erin Pfau, 5-8, fronted McCarthy much of the first half but picked up her third foul in the second quarter and fourth foul in the third period.

"Erin is about the biggest post player we've got right now," Grim said. "Erin's not real big, but she's athletic and works very hard. I was happy with the job she did today."

McCarthy opened the second half with a conventional three-point play and quickly added an offensive rebound. She later picked up her only assist on a nice interior pass to Wissehr, part of a 12-1 run that opened a 51-38 lead by the 1:57 mark of the third quarter.

Notre Dame scored the final five points of the quarter to close to 51-43, but McCarthy and accurate free-throw shooting by her teammates closed out the Bulldogs impressively. The Angels merely looped the ball into McCarthy for their first three baskets of the fourth quarter and later hit 10 consecutive free throws. With 2:58 left, St. Joseph's held a commanding 69-50 lead.

The win over Notre Dame was the first in three tries for St. Joseph's.

"We knew this was going to be a tough game," Grim said. "We had to play our best and they had to have an off day for us to beat them. We've played better than what we have, but we can play better."

Ellis led the Bulldogs with 14 points while Ashley Millham had 13.

With four losses, Notre Dame has already doubled its total in a 29-2 season.

"We've played four very good teams," Grim said. "To be 1-4, that's understandable. We'll come around."

jbreer@semissourian.com

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