Notre Dame girls basketball team halts Jackson

Notre Dame girls basketball coach Renee Peters had one task for her team at halftime of its game against Jackson on Thursday night.

"Stop Tomsu," Peters said. "She had 15 of their 25 points. I said if one player can do that much damage, then shame on us. We knew coming in that she was going to be their key player."

The Bulldogs allowed Jackson sophomore Cassidi Tomsu to score the Indians' first basket of the second half with 6 minutes, 15 seconds left in the third quarter, then didn't allow another field goal until just 3:37 remained in the fourth on their way to a 54-39 road victory.

"We also know that by the time the second half rolls around a lot of teams -- we're able to wear them down and it starts to show in the second half," Peters said. "They picked up some fouls, and we were able to take it to the basket."

Jackson (7-4) committed just one turnover in the third quarter while scoring just one field goal, but the Bulldogs' half-court defense and a cold streak from the field that resulted in quality shots being missed led to the Indians' demise.

"We're more of a perimeter-oriented team, and we do have a tendency to shoot jump shots, and when you shoot jump shots you have a tendency to be hot and cold," Jackson coach Tyler Abernathy said. "We went through a cold stretch there."

The Indians jumped out to a 6-0 lead to start the game and led for most of the first half.

"One of our -- I hate to say signatures, but one of the things we've been struggling with now is scoring early," Peters said. "I mean, we'll go three or four minutes into a game and not score. I don't know if it's just the roller coaster or if it's mental block -- I don't know. Tonight I said we cannot let that happen, and sure enough we were down 6-0 at the beginning. It was a reality check. It was like, stop and let's begin again. We're better than this."

Notre Dame (10-1) scored it's first basket with 5:34 left in the first, but Peters called a timeout after her team's fourth turnover of the game led to another Jackson basket just over a minute later.

"They know," Peters said of the message she delivered to her team during the timeout. "Heck, they could probably coach themselves because they know what I'm going to say. When I walk in and hear them talking I hear myself speaking, so I know they know."

Notre Dame senior Shelby Beussink, who led her team with 18 points, said the players are forbidden from getting down on themselves.

"We stay positive the whole game," Beussink said. "We never be negative. That's a team rule. We never be negative."

Jackson led 12-10 after the first quarter and 25-23 at halftime, but Abernathy saw the game change after the break.

"You could see in about the middle of the third I thought we got some good shots -- they weren't quite going in. We missed some free throws and you could see that affect us on the defensive end and energy-wise," Abernathy said. "I felt that's kind of when you saw the game go from us being up one or two to next thing you know you're down four and then it was seven."

Notre Dame tied the game at 28-28 with 4:41 left in the third as part of an 8-0 run to end the quarter and led 35-28 entering the fourth before slowly pulling away with the help of excellent free-throw shooting. The Bulldogs made 19 of their 20 attempts in the game.

While he said he obviously would have preferred to get a victory, Abernathy saw improvements from the first time the teams met Dec. 18 at the Kelso Supply Holiday Classic. Notre Dame won that game 57-35.

"Honestly I was very proud of how we played defensively," Abernathy said. "I thought the first time we played them -- Notre Dame is so good. Everyone talks about their defense, but you forget that they're all really good offensively. The first time we played them I didn't feel like we could get stops. We were always against their press because we couldn't get any stops, where this time I thought we did a really good job defensively."

Tomsu finished with 25 points to lead Jackson while no other player scored more than six points for the Indians. Halley Lynch had 10 points for Notre Dame and Karsen Powers and Annie Siebert added nine apiece.

Notre Dame 10 13 12 19 -- 54

Jackson 12 13 3 11 -- 39

NOTRE DAME (54) -- Annie Siebert 9, Kaitlin Welter 5, Karsen Powers 9, Shelby Beussink 18, Halle Lynch 10, Taylor Feeney 2. FG 17, FT 19-20, F 17. (3-pointers: Powers 1. Fouled out: none)

JACKSON (39) -- Cassidi Tomsu 25, Rachel Crites 3, Autumn Reid 2, Kayla Keith 6, Mckinzie Scott 3. FG 13, FT 8-14, F 20. (3-pointers: Tomsu 2, Crites 1, Keith 1, Scott 1. Fouled out: Reid, Keith)