WEST CHESTER, PA — Despite being undersized and falling into an early hole, the Notre Dame basketball team never panicked.
After all, the Fighting Irish had been in this situation plenty of times throughout the season, so things at least felt familiar. What the team wasn’t accustomed to was its two sharpshooters going cold in the fourth quarter.
That proved to be the difference in Saturday’s PAISAA girls’ basketball title game, as Notre Dame fell to the reigning champions from Shipley School, 47-37, at Westtown School. Maggie Pina and Mandy McGurk, the Irish’s two leading scorers at 18.0 and 16.2, respectively, endured a combined 3-for-12 final frame as the game went from a 29-29 tie after three to a 10-pont Shipley victory.
Shipley vs. Academy of Notre Dame 2018 PAISAA Highlight Video - Shot by Kevin Murphy
“We didn’t turn the ball over and every shot was a good shot,” longtime Notre Dame head coach Mary Beth McNichol said of the decisive fourth quarter. “We had our two leading scorers shooting the ball, and they were all good in the fourth. They just didn’t drop for us.”
This isn’t to say Pina and McGurk had bad nights, as they led the Irish with 14 and 12 points.
The duo also helped the team climb back into the game after falling into a 16-7 deficit after one, scoring nine of the team’s 11 points in both the second and third quarters.
A Pina three-pointer late in the third gave Notre Dame a 27-24 advantage, and she scored the first bucket of the fourth to break a tie and give the Irish their only two leads of the game. They were unfortunately short-lived, as the Shipley combo of junior guard Lauren Ross (23 points) and 6-foot-2 junior Anna Camden (14 points, nine rebounds) proved to be too hard to handle in crunch time.
“I think for the most part our defense played well, as that was a pretty low score in a state championship game,” Pina said. “Obviously, our plan didn’t work so well once we got to the fourth quarter. We only allowed six points in the second quarter and we kept that momentum going into the third.
“They’re a hard team to score on. They’re so tall and athletic and are hard to get into the lane against, which is how we score a lot of our points. We had a pretty tough schedule this year and are used to playing bigger, tougher, more athletic teams. We’re used to coming from behind too, and we usually close the gap and overtake the opponent. This game, it just didn’t work out.”
As the game evolved, it became evident it was becoming the Pina and McGurk versus the Ross and Camden show, with the latter ultimately outscoring the former, 37-26. The Shipley duo kept the Notre Dame defense honest by unleashing both Camden and Ross as inside-outside threats. Each player proved capable of converting jump shots and getting to the rim for an easy bucket or foul call.
“Because of Camden’s height, we just can’t match up,” Pina said. “As soon as they got it to her in the post we would crash two or three girls on her. When we did that, she walked; I was hoping they would call that, but instead they got it out to Lauren on the perimeter for a shot or drive. She’s more our size and speed, so we could have done a better job guarding her, but Anna’s size opened some things up for them.”
#31 Notre Dame's Maggie Pina - PSD Photo by Kevin Murphy
For her part, McNichol was proud of her team’s fight. Not only did they fight back from down nine in the first quarter, but they also cut a late nine-point deficit in the fourth to five, with possession, but the shots just rattled out.
“We battled back all year,” McNichol said. “We still play hard and don’t lose our cool. We won a lot of close games at the end, but we just couldn’t get the shots to drop. It’s disappointing, but at the same time, I’m proud of them. As the three seed, I don’t think anyone expected us to be in the championship game. We had an opportunity, but unfortunately it didn’t happen for us tonight.”
2018 PAISAA Photo Gallery - By Kevin Murphy
Shipley vs. NDA - PSD Photos by Kevin Murphy
Perhaps serving as some consolation for McNichol and the Irish was that the team would lose just two seniors and return the same starting lineup on a team that won 15 games in 2017-18. That group is obviously headlined by McGurk and Pina, who said the returning players will remember this feeling and use it as motivation during the offseason.
“We had a better season than anyone, including ourselves, anticipated,” Pina said. “Getting here was more than we hoped for, and now it’s time to start getting ready for next year. Most of us start AAU ball in a week or two, so we’ll be thinking about this loss all summer long and into the fall.
“We’re mostly all coming back, and we want to make sure this doesn’t happen again. We want to make it back next year and end it differently. A lot of us have played together since we were little. I’ve been with Mandy and Caitlyn Mullen since we were in the second grade, so we’ll all go get ready for our senior seasons. None of us want next year to end this way.”