Timing is everything and Byron-Bergen had it on their side in their Section V girls basketball quarterfinal win over Notre Dame.
They used a diamond-press defense and put senior Abbie Noeth on the Irish’s’ best player – Rebecca Krenzer – and allowed Notre Dame to score just five points over the eight-minute second quarter as the Bees built a ten point lead largely on Abbie Kelley’s 11 first half points.
But the Irish made their run to open the second half rattling off ten straight points to get within one before Kelley hit a put-back to end the streak.
After the Irish tied the game at 27-27 with 5:45 remaining, the Bees knocked down four consecutive field goals with Kelley hitting a reverse lay-up and a short jumper and Lindsay Lovett scoring twice on a runner and a lay-up off a perfectly executed inbounds play to extend the lead to eight with 3:12 left.
A put-back by Sam Morgante after a Lovett steal and a takeaway-layup by Kelley in the final minute secured the victory, which put third-seed Byron-Bergen into the Class C1 semi-finals against second-seeded Gananda.
“Great players make great plays and Abbie Kelley came up at the right time for us,” Bees head coach Rick Krzewinski said. “Everybody wants to beat Notre Dame, and to do this in a sectional game makes it sweet.”
Kelley finished with a team-high 23 points and unofficially added nine rebounds for Bryon-Bergen. Lovett finished with eight points, point guard Morgante had six to go with five rebounds and Noeth added four points.
