Trenton surges past Notre Dame with late flurry
TRENTON >> Every year one of the most intriguing matchups in Colonial Valley Conference girls basketball is Trenton High versus Notre Dame High, so it is fitting that one of the more intriguing individual matchups locally is when Tornadoes junior forward Ishuana Hunter and Irish junior forward Erika Porter meet on the court.
These two ruled the paint at Rivera Middle School Tuesday as Trenton rallied to defeat Notre Dame, 56-53.
Their contrast in styles did not take away from their success, in fact it probably helped both.
Porter, a 6-foot-2 power forward, won the scoring matchup with 25 points to go with 16 rebounds and four blocked shots.
Hunter, a six-footer who likes to slide around in the post, just missed a tripledouble with 13 points, 18 rebounds and nine steals.
“She’s a good player,” Hunter said of Porter. “It’s hard going up against her because I’m a little shorter. But we were fighting for the win, I had to try to lock her down.”
While secure in the middle, head coach James Martinos’ Irish had to figure things out around the perimeter with senior guard Leah Johnson (12.4 points per game) out sick. That put a little extra pressure on her backcourt classmate, Natalie Smith, and freshman Nicole Villalta-Barrantes. Notre Dame’s Erika Porter (32) puts up a shot over the defense of Trenton’s Shanekah Poole (14) during a CVC game on Tuesday night.
While the pair did a fine job in combining for 19 points and eight assists, it was tough to keep up with the Tornadoes’ guard trio of N’Dia Stepps, Shaneka Poole and Maliajah Robinson.
Stepps led all players with 21 points. Poole added 14 with four 3-point field goals, and Robinson scored eight, including a key three-point play with 2:35 remaining in the game when the game was hanging in the balance. Notre Dame’s Nicole Villalta-Barrantes (22) knocks the ball away from Trenton’s N’Dia Stepps (11) before Stepps can score during a CVC game on Tuesday night.
“No matter who’s missing, we’ve got to step up,” said Porter, who picked up her fourth foul on Robinson’s late basket, but never fouled out. “We played hard the whole game.”
In fact, ND (8-4) looked like it was going to send the game to overtime when Porter tied up a missed layup with 10 seconds remaining to give the ball back to the visitors.
But, after a timeout, Hunter swiped the inbound pass and was fouled, then hit 1 of 2 free throws to give first-year head coach Marlene Neal’s team a three-point lead.
Notre Dame got the look it wanted on the final play, but the 3-point shot missed its mark, allowing Hunter and Co. to improve to 8-3 by outlasting Porter and Co. less than 24 hours after suffering a tough, 56-47 loss at Life Center Academy Monday.
NOTRE DAME (53)
AJones 1-0-2, NSmith 5-0-10, Wright 0-0-0, Flowers 0-0-0, Porter 12-1-25, PMorgan 0-0-0, O’Donnell 0-0-0, Rende 0-0-0, McCauley 2-3-7, Villalta-Barrantes 4-1-9.
Totals — 24-5-53.
TRENTON (56)
Stepps 7-7-21, MRobinson 2-3-8, Poole 5-0-14, Daley 0-0-0, Hunter 5-3-13, Watkins 0-0-0. Totals — 19-13-56. NotreDame(8-4) 19 12 8 14 — 53 Trenton (8-3) 11141318—56 3-point goals: MRobinson, Poole 4 (T).