Notre Dame College fought back from big deficits multiple times Saturday in the Mountain East Conference women's basketball semifinals against Wheeling Jesuit, but in the end the Cardinals just had too much firepower for the Falcons to handle.
Jesuit had five players score in double-figures and defensively kept NDC standout Martha Nagbe in check for a 79-66 win against the Falcons at the Charleston Civic Center.
The job of guarding Nagbe, last season's MEC women's player of the year and a first-team all-conference pick this season, fell mostly to WJU senior Taylor Lubinksy. Jesuit coach Debbie Buff said she pulled Lubinksy aside early in the week and asked if she was up to the challenge of guarding Nagbe if the Cardinals had to play Notre Dame. Lubinksy told her coach she could do it and followed through on Saturday.
Nagbe, who averaged close to 18 points per game this season, didn't score her first points against Wheeling Jesuit until midway through the second quarter and finished well below her average with 10 points - most of which came with Lubinsky's hand in her face.
"Taylor Lubinsky was huge for us," Buff said. "She played a ton of minutes and just face-guarded Martha Nagbe. Martha Nagbe is a very good player and she held her to 10 [points].
"We said if we're going to get beat it's not going to be by someone who scores 30 points or someone that has 25 points and 10 rebounds. I really think they did a good job face-guarding the other team's best player. Tay took that very seriously."
The second-seeded Cardinals (25-5) led 30-11 after one quarter, but the comfortable lead would not last long. Notre Dame went on a 22-4 run to open the second quarter to make it a 34-33 game, but sputtered the rest of the quarter. The Cardinals led 40-33 at haftime and regrouped after the Falcons' second quarter onslaught.
Notre Dame (20-10) could not get its offense going again in the third quarter, falling behind 61-39 by the time it ended. It was too much to overcome, despite outscoring Jesuit 25-18 in the fourth quarter.
"There were big differences between quarters," NDC coach Katie Hine said. "The quarters when we really needed to establish the tone, the first and third, we didn't exactly do that and we found ourselves in holes throughout the game. That's tough. If you looked at us against Urbana [in the quarterfinals], we prided ourselves on going at them early and I think we kind of put the car in reverse [against Jesuit] with the first part of the game."
First-team all-conference selection Jaila Bryant led Wheeling Jesuit with 20 points to go with six rebounds and six assists against NDC. Mariah Callen, a former University High standout, had 18 points, four rebounds and four assists. Chenelle Moore grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds to go with 12 points, while Kylie Frizell scored 11 points and Lubinksy finished with 10.
"Today we just talked about enjoying the moment and having fun," Buff said. "We got some shots up today and I thought we got off to a really quick start. Jailia played like a first team all-conference [player], Mariah played like the point guard she's been like all year. We shared the ball and had five people in double-figures."
For Notre Dame, Kim Cook led the team with 14 points and Kelsey Miller chipped in with 12.
Next up for Wheeling Jesuit is a date in the Mountain East Conference championship game against top seed and bitter rival West Liberty. The Cardinals lost both regular season meetings aginst the Hilltoppers. Tipoff on Sunday is scheduled for 1 p.m.