By MATT GOLDBERG

Herald-Whig Sports Writer

He matched wits with the state's most successful girls basketball coach for 36 minutes in the state tournament semifinals.

His team won 32 straight games -- setting a school record -- and finished fourth in Class 3A.

But while those on-the-court feats are impressive, nothing compares to what Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball coach Eric Orne accomplished off the court.

Between barbecues, movie nights and other team-building activities, Orne molded a nucleus of stars into a team with one common goal -- making it to state.

He turned potential ball hogs into team players.

"When they started using the words 'we' and 'us' that's really where it changed," Orne said.

For successfully convincing 15 girls -- all with very different personalities and agendas -- to work as one, Orne is the 2008 Herald-Whig Coach of the Year.

The team's talent was never in question.

"I've been very blessed with some talented teams over the years but sometimes they didn't always play together well," Orne said.

He made that cohesion a priority this season.

"He drilled it into our heads over and over again that we could have the best players on (our) team but we're not going to do anything good if we don't work together," sophomore Karlee Gengenbacher said.

"He just made us have team bonding after bonding and he'd sit down and have conversations with girls telling them, 'We have to come together or we're not going to accomplish anything this year.'"

Orne notably made the addition of junior Chloe Barnes, a transfer from Quincy High School, a seamless transition. He arranged a dinner to introduce her to the team and accommodated her anytime she had the urge to shoot some baskets during non-school hours.

"He just went out of his way, not only for me, but for everyone to make sure this season was a really, really good one," Barnes said.

The turning point seemed to come on Dec. 21 against Palmyra, when the undefeated Lady Raiders were tested for the first time.

After watching Palmyra tie the game with 1 minute, 39 seconds left in the third quarter, QND pulled together and scored 12 straight points to seal the victory.

"I think we had some things that brought us together there because we were struggling," Orne said. "... On the court in the huddle you finally saw those (girls) say, 'Hey, we can do it.'"

The next day, QND played Silex. And that's when Orne noticed the change in his team's attitude.

"You could just see that everything was more at ease," Orne said. "This team was playing together, they were looking for each other, they were sharing the ball. From that point on you could just see that they finally understood that working together we could accomplish anything we wanted to. ... We just kind of destroyed Silex and everybody just realized what their role on the team was and how we could make this work."

That 64-28 win over Silex enabled the Lady Raiders to end the 2007 portion of the season 10-0.

Orne noticed a difference on the court and in the hallways of QND.

"The girls started hanging out together at school," Orne said. "It was really something special. The more they hung out together, the stronger bond we had in our huddles and that we could accomplish anything we wanted to and you could just see their confidence growing as they just sat down and believed in each other."

Around that time, Gengenbacher found herself hanging out with people that weren't in her usual circle of friends -- her teammates.

"Some of those girls you just never think you would be friends with them," Gengenbacher said. "... We did so much team bonding, there were weeks where we had something almost every night or every other night. We spent so much time together. ... We just all became really good friends and (Orne) was the main reason for that."

While his team warmed up prior to the state semifinal game against Marshall -- and legendary coach Dorothy Gaters, who has an 881-121 career record -- Orne paused to glance across the court at the crowd, which included his wife Tracy Orne.

"For even a brief shining moment, everything in the world at that time was perfect for me," Orne said. "Even though it was maybe just for a minute, it was something I'll never forget."

Despite losing in overtime to Marshall, he will also treasure the effort his team gave in every game of a 32-2 season.

"As tough a loss as that was, I was extremely proud of the team after the game, as proud as I was even after any victory," Orne said. "This team always showed a way or found a way to do whatever it took and we were definitely very proud of them after the game."

A common misconception is that the Lady Raiders were led to the state tournament by a single player. But that's just not accurate, thanks to the team concept Orne instilled.

"I think what people don't realize is it was a different person every time," Orne said. "We just weren't one player. We were always a strong unit. That's probably why we were able to have our season record and were able to make it all the way to the state (tournament)."

-- mgoldberg@whig.com/221-3367