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Published: 2/26/2008 | Updated: 1/24/2009
By MATT GOLDBERG
Herald-Whig Sports Writer
The Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball team can cross another accomplishment off its list.
The Lady Raiders' 58-41 win over Central-Southeastern at The Pit Saturday night clinched a perfect record at home this season — one of 10 goals they set for themselves before the season began.
"We knew we had to win at home," senior Janell Vermeire said. "That was the bottom line. We had to change up some things. When we did, that's what got us back on defense."
A Morgan Grawe 3-pointer and a Karlee Gengenbacher basket helped QND score five of the final seven points in the first half, to take a 24-22 advantage into halftime.
"We needed to make some adjustments," said QND coach Eric Orne, whose team improved to 25-0.
"We wanted to come out and obviously establish ourselves right away so we could get a lead and do some things defensively with our zone to take them out of their game."
QND junior Chloe Barnes started the second half with a basket and the Lady Raiders outscored CSE 17-2 in the opening 6:40 of the third quarter.
Vermeire said the Lady Raiders' 1-3-1 zone defense in the third quarter and trapping the Lady Panthers' ball handlers helped QND take control of the game.
"We had to come out and rebound and we did a great job of pushing the ball (in the second half)," Vermeire said. "That's how we got our points. We were back on defense just like (Orne) told us. We just had to help each other out."
After a back-and-forth opening quarter, which featured four ties, C-SE scored four of the final six points in the opening quarter to take a 14-8 lead.
"(Central) came out with a lot of energy," Orne said. "Obviously what we established early on in the third quarter made the difference in the game."
QND entered the fourth quarter with a 43-28 lead. The Lady Raiders patiently killed the clock in the final quarter by passing the ball around until they found the best shot.
Orne is glad that his group of six seniors — Vermeire, Renita Bunte, Kelli Keck, Morgan Grawe, Elizabeth Wolf, Marissa Rittof and Kayley Rodriguez — went out with a win their final career home game.
"They're a special group of seniors and they go out a winner," Orne said. "I'm very proud of that."
Gengenbacher earned game MVP honors after finishing with 20 points and seven rebounds.
Ali Schwagmeyer had 25 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Lady Panthers (20-7).
The Lady Raiders close out the regular season next week with games at Clopton on Friday and at St. Louis Notre Dame on Saturday.
— mgoldberg@whig.com/221-3367
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