McErlane, Notre Dame hold off to Germantown Academy, improve to 3-0 in Inter-Ac

WHITEMARSH >> Whether it is late in a quarter or the final seconds ticking off the shot clock, Notre Dame’s Maeve McErlane has put in the work to take the stress out of those high-pressure moments.

“Out of practices and a lot of my workouts I really focus in on that end of the shot clock situation,” McErlane said. “But also at practice we really work as a team when there’s like 10 seconds left on the shot clock, 15 seconds left on the shot clock what we need to do to be able to put the ball in the basket.”

McErlane came through with clutch buckets throughout Tuesday night’s Inter-Ac matchup with Germantown Academy, including a key 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter, while the visiting Irish shored up its defense enough to hold off the Patriots for a 45-41 victory.

“GA’s kind of been our rival for the past couple years, they have this motto that they’re the team that wins the Inter-Ac every year,” McErlane said. “So we just wanted to come out, play really hard as a team – we really focused in on our defense, we’ve really been in on help and we stopped Kendall Bennett, I’m not sure how many points she had but she was our key focus.

“Our defense is kind of what gave us our energy on offense and I think as a team we did that really well.”

McErlane, who has signed with DePaul, finished with a game-high 22 points, the senior guard collecting the final points in each of the first three quarters. And In the fourth, after Germantown Academy cut Notre Dame’s 12-point lead down to six, McErlane unleashed a deep three from the right wing with two seconds left on the shot clock that connected, putting the Irish up 44-35 with 1:10 remaining.

“As it was leaving my hands I knew it was going in,” McErlane said. “I was confident in my shot, confident in Julia (Dever’s) pass.”

Izzy Casey scored nine of her 14 points in the fourth while Sam Wade added another 14 points for the Patriots (5-4, 0-2), which had its three-game winning streak snapped. 

GA got off to a solid start, leading 16-10 before McErlane capped the first quarter with a triple but the Patriots recorded just 11 points over second and third quarters.

“We’ve been trying to work a lot on playing all four quarters because we’ve had a few games this year where we’ve had leads in the first half and we’ve lost them,” Casey said. “So I think their defense threw us off a little bit, they started to trap a lot but I think we did a good job staying in, holding with them and staying with them.”

Dever chipped in 10 points while Kate Halligan had nine points for Notre Dame (8-2, 3-0), which has won its last four.

Both teams are getting back to the court after COVID-19 threw a wrench into their schedules. The Irish and GA each played Dec. 18 then did not return to action until Sunday when they competed at the Blue Star Invitational – Notre Dame beating Spring-Ford while the Patriots topped Imhotep Charter.

“We had two weeks off at Christmas because of how our team had so much COVID,” Casey said. “We got out our first week of practice, we played really hard and we worked on a lot of stuff. But it was really good to be back at Imhotep and then again today.”

Germantown Academy hosts Baldwin School 4 p.m. Wednesday. Notre Dame, which has its sights set on claiming the program’s first Inter-Ac title since 1998-99, is home against Springside Chestnut Hill 4 p.m. Friday.

“That is definitely the goal this year but especially to take each game one at a time,” McErlane said. “Don’t underestimate any teams and just bring the same intensity every single game.”

Notre Dame did not have its first lead until late in the first half. An Annie Greek basket off a drive pulled the Irish level at 21-21 while a Halligan free throw put the visitors up with 27 seconds left before the break.

Wade’s runner with 12 seconds to go had the Patriot back ahead only for McErlane to answer with her own runner driving in from the left wing for a 24-23 Notre Dame advantage at halftime.

“She’s a really great player obviously,” said Casey of McErlane. “We were trying to slow her down and hold her to less points but she’s a really great player so it’s hard to do that. But I think we did a good job for the most part.”

Baskets from Dever and Halligan to start the third extended the Irish’s lead to five. GA got within three twice, the last at 30-27 before Notre Dame ended the quarter with a 7-0 run – McErlane draining a three, Greek making two free throws at 56 seconds then McErlane banking in a runner for a 37-27 lead going into the fourth.

“We came out after, this is the first half, we kind of said we’re half a step too slow right now,” McErlane said. “And that I think that kind of picked back up.”

A Dever fast-break layup made it nine straight Irish points and had the visitors up 39-27. But Casey knocked down a three on an inbounds while a Bennett free throw and Wade’s basket off a Casey bounce pass cut the Patriots’ deficit to six.

“I knew we needed to score, so we kind of just were like go to the basket,” Casey said. “As hard as you can, try to get fouled. We didn’t get to the foul line many times so that was a goal but it was just trying to get to the basket as hard as we could.”

McErlane made both ends of a 1-and-1 for a 41-33 lead with 2:33 left before a Jenna Aponik jumper had GA again down six. The Patriots forced a miss but gave the ball back on an errant pass at 1:40 and McErlane hit her fourth and final three for a 44-37 edge with 70 seconds left.

Consecutive baskets from Casey made it 44-39. Dever hit the front end of a 1-and-1 with 14 seconds remaining to put the Irish up six before a Casey runner dropped but the clock ran out and Notre Dame’s league record remained unblemished.

In the first quarter, a seven-point run – the last four from Bennett – gave GA a 10-3 lead. A McErlane triple had Notre Dame down 12-10 but Casey putback own miss and a Wade transition basket after a Gabby Bowes steal made it 16-10 Patriots. McErlane’s three had the margin at 16-13 after eight minutes.

A three from Wade put Germantown Academy up 21-17 before Notre Dame finished the half with a 7-2 run for a 24-23 lead.

Notre Dame 45, Germantown Academy 41
Notre Dame 13 11 13 8 – 45
Germantown Academy 16 7 4 14 – 41
Notre Dame: Maeve McErlane 8 2-2 22; Julia Dever 3 4-6 10; Katie Halligan 3 3-4 9; Annie Greek 1 2-2 4; Totals 15 11-14 45.
Germantown Academy: Izzy Casey 6 0-0 14; Sam Wade 6 0-0 14; Kendall Bennett 2 1-2 5; Jenna Aponik 2 0-0 4; Jessica Aponik 1 0-0 2; Jessica Kolecki 1 0-0 2; Totals 18 1-2 41.
3-pointers: ND-McErlane 4; GA-Casey 2, Wade 2.