Tournament play looks just like the regular
season for Burlington Notre Dame.
The
state's highest scoring team completed the opening day of the Class 1A
tournament with a 90-50 victory over Adair-Casey, the fourth time the Nikes
have reached 80 or more points in as many postseason games.
Taylor
Hickey scored 27 points to lead third-ranked Notre Dame, which shot 58 percent
from the field and easily topped its season scoring average of 81.7 points.
Riley Kilbride added 16 points for the Nikes and Courtney
Coffin scored 10.
Notre
Dame harassed Adair-Casey throughout with its full-court press and traps, came
up with 18 steals and scored 34 points off turnovers. The Nikes improved to
22-3 and will play No. 2 Janesville in the semifinals at 10 a.m. Thursday.
London
Vais led eighth-ranked Adair-Casey with 23 points and
10 rebounds. Zoey Dinkla
and Shelby Sorensen each scored six for the Bombers, who finish 23-4 after the
school's second state tourney trip. The 23 victories are a school record in the
five-player era.
Adair-Casey
trailed by 15 midway through the second quarter, then started
taking better care of the ball and drew to 33-26 in the closing seconds
of the first half. But any hopes the Bombers had of taking some momentum into
halftime ended when Hickey sank two free throws, then scored on a drive after a
turnover just before the buzzer.
That
mini-surge became an 18-0 run when Notre Dame began the second half with 14
straight points to make it 51-26. The Nikes held Adair-Casey to three field
goals in the third quarter and led 74-37 heading into the final period.