VILLANOVA, PA-- A much- anticipated second match-up between the Academy of Notre Dame and Penn Charter ended with a 60-48 Irish win on Thursday.

Determined to change the outcome of their last meeting on Dec. 14th when the Quakers walked away with a 45-33 victory, ND hit their home court strong from the start. After freshman Riley Shaak won the tip-off, the Irish dominated the first quarter.

With good passes, rebounds and even some breakaways the Quakers trailed the Irish 14-7.

Penn Charter returned to the court with a better idea of Notre Dame's pace. With good defense, the Quakers closed the scoreboard gap 16-15 with three minutes left to the half.

It wasn't enough to stop sophomore point guard Mandy McGurk. McGurk hit a three-point hoop to give Notre Dame a 23-20 lead into halftime.

"The last time we played them we came out in the second half very sluggish and they kind of dominated us," said Notre Dame head coach Mary Beth McNichol.

Thursday's third quarter was an entirely different story. In just under two minutes, the Irish racked up 11 points.

The quarter ended 43-32 in favor of the Irish.

Heading into the fourth quarter, Quakers head coach Joe Maguire encouraged his team to step out and challenge Notre Dame defensively.

“The difference in this game and the first was we allowed them to make more 3's then we would have liked.  Notre Dame is a really good 3-point shooting team and we wanted to limit them to less than five made 3's and we did not,” said Penn Charter head coach Joe Maguire.

With under two minutes left, the Quakers fouled four times giving away a total of six points in the final moments of the game.

McNichol pointed out that Notre Dame’s final 60-point game total was unusual for them.

"We feel like we really improved a lot over the last couple of weeks and we're just hoping we can continue this. We have five more games and then the PAISAA tournament. We're hoping we can just go off of this for the next couple of weeks," McNichol said.