NOTRE DAME REACHES TITLE GAME; LADY BULLDOGS DOWN HARTVILLE IN SIMIS

COLUMBIA -- Rachael Schlosser was right.

Probably more right than she could have ever imagined.

Schlosser, Notre Dame High's junior center who never fails to give interviewers good material, predicted that her team would dominate smaller Class 2A semifinal opponent Hartville inside.

The Lady Bulldogs did just that -- and cruised into today's state championship basketball game at the Hearnes Center with a 59-48 win Friday night.

Notre Dame (22-9), which finished second in the state two seasons ago, will look to avenge that loss against Skyline (30-1), which hammered previously undefeated Palmyra 56-38 in Friday's other semifinal.

The Lady Bulldogs and Skyline will square off for the championship at 9:45 tonight.

At times Notre Dame's frontcourt went 6-foot, 5-10 and 5-10. Hartville's tallest player is only 5-9.

The stats reflected it: Notre Dame outrebounded the Lady Eagles 36-20 overall and 26-10 on the defensive glass.

The Lady Bulldogs also moved the ball inside very well and hit 22 of 40 shots (55 percent), compared to Hartville's poor 17 for 47 shooting (36 percent).

Notre Dame shot 60 percent (3 of 5) to Hartville's 19 percent (3 of 16) from 3-point territory and shot a sizzling 86 percent from the free-throw line (12 of 14) to the Lady Eagles' 50 percent (11 of 22).

Six-foot senior Amanda Lange led Notre Dame with 14 points and nine rebounds. Olivia Beel, a 5-10 junior, played very well off the bench and scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Melissa Maurer added 10 points.

"We took it inside as much as we could," said Notre Dame coach Jerry Grim. "We shot over 50 percent, which is pretty good."

Lange has had an up-and-down season offensively -- and Friday was definitely up.

"I'll get on a streak where I'm having 10-point games, and then I go to just two- and three-point games. I never know what I'm going to do," said Lange.

Hartville coach Craig Hardy said that his Lady Eagles could have handled Notre Dame's size more effectively.

"They went to the inside on us and we just didn't get it guarded good enough," said Hardy. "We tried to put a lot of pressure full-court, and when we did they broke it . . . and they hit the easy shots at the other end."

In contrast to Notre Dame's balanced scoring, Hartville's scoring was dominated by talented junior guard Mindy Cutbirth, who led all scorers with 29 points. Kelli Dugger (11 points) was the only other Lady Eagle who scored more than four points.

With the score tied at 12-12 entering the second quarter, Notre Dame held Hartville scoreless from the field in the final five-and-a-half minutes of the second period and led 27-18 at the break.

Hartville (26-4) came back in the third quarter and outscored the Lady Bulldogs 14-11 in the period to cut its deficit to 38-32 entering the fourth quarter.

Although Notre Dame's inside players were obviously very important, the Lady Bulldog guards were key in the fourth quarter. With Hartville employing a furious press in hopes of coming back, Maurer, Tracy Blattel and Jennifer Glueck broke through the press numerous times to find teammates downcourt for easy scores.

After Hartville closed the gap to four points, 38-34, with 7:40 remaining in the game, Notre Dame went on a 9-0 run that was capped by a 3-point play by Glueck to up the lead to 47-34 with 5:37 left.

Notre Dame led by as many as 17 points, 53-38, with about two-and-a half minutes left. Hartville rallied late to bring the game within seven points with less than 30 seconds left, 55-48, but came no closer.

Perhaps the only thing Notre Dame did poorly was handle the ball after it broke the press. The Lady Bulldogs committed 22 turnovers to Hartville's 12. That number will have to be reduced tonight.

"We had a lot of turnovers that were really unforced," said Grim. "We were a little indecisive.

"We're going into tomorrow's game looking to win even though we're going up against a pretty tough club."