Burlington Notre Dame pulled away in the second half and went on to a 90-50 win over Adair-Casey in the final class 1A quarterfinal of the day at the girls’ state basketball tournament in Des Moines.
Burlington Notre Dame coach, Kollin Alfred, says they need to make some adjustments at halftime. “Once we let them back into the ballgame we started missing our free throws, started turning the ball over a little bit, and we shored that up and came out and played a great second half,” Alfred says.
He says it was a matter of shutting down Adair-Casey’s offense. “We just started playing defense and our offense came out of our defense, and it was a nice second half,” Alfred says. Taylor Hickey led the Nikes with 27 points. She agreed with her coach on the defensive adjustment as she says their offense comes from their defense and with their great guards they get steals and that leads to buckets.
Adair-Casey coach, Cory Bartz says they couldn’t get a stop in the second half. “You know they just came out and just shot lights out. That’s tough to defend when you can shoot that far away from the basket,” Bartz says. Bartz says they had a great season and the best way to end it is at the state tournament. “They have nothing to hang their heads about, our three seniors have had a fabulous career,” Bartz says. He says he challenged the others to work hard over the summer and come back and try to get to state again next year.
Adair-Casey finishes the season at 28-4. Burlington Notre Dame is 22-3 and will play Janesville in the semifinals Thursday at 10 a.m.
The class 2A first round also got underway, with Cascade beating Manso -NW Webster 43-21. Hudson beat Woodbury Central 85-74 North Linn made a run late to beat South Central Calhoun 57-49.