DOWN TO THE WIRE
Trenton holds off Notre Dame in early-season thriller
LAWRENCE » The fact that there wasn’t a single lead change was merely an ironic footnote in what will go down as one of the most competitive Trenton-Notre Dame boys basketball regular season games of all-time.
The Tornadoes led by 17 late in the first quarter, saw the Irish tie the game several times in the second half and finally clamped down on Notre Dame in the final minute for a 70-66 victory Tuesday night in Lawrence.
It was a thriller that had it all: tough shot-making, tenacious defense, lightning-quick dribbling, countless free throws and impassioned moments.
Trenton survived the onslaught of Notre Dame senior forward Cartier Bowman, who threw down dazzling downs, blocked shots and shot a whopping 15 free throws en route to a game-high 35 points.
The Tornadoes did so with a balanced effort from eight different scorers including seniors Ji’Ayir Brown (16 points) and Ja’qae Alfred (10 points) and junior Elijah Kelly (14 points).
But it was Na’Siir McMillian’s two clutch free throws with 3.9 seconds left that made it a twopossession game to ultimately seal it.
After pulling within nine points going into halftime, Notre Dame came out firing in the second half. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Mike Cane tied the game at 40 with 5:45 remaining in the third quarter.
Brown promptly responded by calmly knocking down two free throws to give Trenton the lead again, but Notre Dame continued to fight. Qai Kellman lobbed an alley-oop to Bowman midway through the fourth quarter to keep it a four-point game as the Irish’s home gym erupted.
With less than five minutes left, Kelly drove and converted a nifty hop-step layup in traffic to extend Trenton’s lead to 65-59.
Justin Yu made a 3-pointer to pull the Irish within a point at 64-65, and later buried a 2-pointer that kept it a twopoint game with 30 seconds remaining.
After calling a timeout with 16.7 seconds left, Notre Dame had a chance to tie or take the lead. But the Irish missed a pair of field goal attempts, and the Tornadoes corralled a rebound and sunk the final pair of their 12 made free throws to put the game out of reach.
In its first game of the season, Trenton looked like a force to be reckoned with in the CVC by showing off its added depth and length from a season ago.
Taller 6-foot-6 forwards such as Nichus Jackson (6-6) and Robert Vereen (6-6) helped the Tornadoes dominate the glass as Trenton ended the first quarter on a 16-2 run to answer a 7-0 spurt by Notre Dame.
The Irish fell to 1-1 after a 8049 rout of Steinert in their season opener last Friday.