By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor
GREEN BAY – The Notre Dame Academy girls’ basketball team continued its postseason dominance with another convincing win.
Behind a balanced scoring attack and suffocating defense, the No. 1-seeded Tritons turned back No. 3 Fox Valley Lutheran, 53-16, in a Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 sectional semifinal game March 3 at Green Bay Southwest High School.
Notre Dame plays another No. 1 seed, Beaver Dam, for the sectional title Saturday, March 5, at West Bend West High School, with the winner gaining a berth in the state tournament next weekend at the Resch Center in Green Bay.
“It was a slow start, but like I told the girls, when it comes to tournament time, you have to be ready for any type of defense teams throw at us,” Notre Dame Head Coach Sara Rohde said. “Fox Valley was giving us the 3-pointer and packing it in. It was hard to get into a flow offensively early on, but I was really happy with our defense.”
Six minutes into the game, it was tied 3-3.
Six minutes later, Notre Dame led 13-5.
By halftime, the Tritons were up 21-9.
Six different Notre Dame players scored in the first half, led by Sydney Whitehouse’s seven points.
Trista Fayta and Peyton Musial nailed 3-pointers for the Tritons before intermission.
In the second half, Notre Dame held the Foxes to only seven points, while putting up 32 of its own.
The Tritons ended the game on an 18-2 run.
Gracie Grzesk led Notre Dame with 13 points, including a pair of 3-pointers.
Whitehouse (8 points), Sarah Hardwick (7), Musial (7), Hope Barington (6) and Fayta (5) provided the balanced scoring the Tritons have relied on all season.
“On any given night, we have different girls step up,” Rohde said. “We frustrated Fox Valley with our defense.”
In winning its three postseason games by an average of 47.7 points per game so far, Rohde said that doesn’t worry her.
“We’ve had some close games this season, and even though this game started slow, it doesn’t worry me,” she said. “We found other ways to bring energy to the game.”
Notre Dame, the defending state champs, has made eight state tournament appearances.
Before last season, the Tritons won state titles in 2001, 2013 and 2014.
Redbirds steamroll DSHA
Four players scored in double figures in De Pere’s (23-4) 58-34 victory over Divine Savior Holy Angels in a Division 1 sectional semifinal game at Germantown High School.
Claire Bjorge (16 points), Jordan Meulemans (14), Avery Bierowski (14) and Oakley Witteck (10) combined to score 54 points for the No. 3-seeded Redbirds.
De Pere takes on No. 1-seeded Germantown at 2:30 p.m. at Sheboygan North High School March 5 for the sectional championship.
The Redbirds have also made eight state tournament appearances, with their last trip being in 2017.