Pintinalli’s 3-pointer sends Notre Dame to semis
ALLENTOWN >> Simone Pintinalli knew the ball was coming her way.
All the Colonial Valley Conference’s leading 3-point shooter had to do was make the shot to send the Notre Dame high girls basketball team to the semifinals of the Mercer County Tournament. Swish. Pintinalli’s 3-ball with two seconds remaining gave the fifth-seeded Irish a 44-42 victory over fourth-seeded Allentown in a quarterfinal game on Saturday afternoon.
“We were going to run the play and we were going to execute,” said Pintinalli, who made four 3s and finished with 14 points. “Coach drew it up and we knew what we had to do. You have to stay confident, it’s the only way you can make it.”
Notre Dame (15-8) trailed by six as the clock ticked under three minutes, but Pintinalli’s third trey cut the deficit in half before back-to-back baskets inside by Angelina Banas (10 points) gave it the lead with 36 seconds remaining.
The Redbirds, who had grabbed the lead late in the third quarter on a 3-pointer by Alexis Sebar, had led up until that point, but when point guard Kayla McCrea fouled out with 1:30 left, it made breaking the the Irish pressure more difficult. Yet, Allentown managed to re-gain a one-point advantage when a cutting Caitlin
Landgraf (10 points) scored off a feed from Bailey Patten with 12 seconds to go.
ND coach James Martinos called timeout and drew up a play to get the ball in the hands of one of the league’s best shooters.
“You could see Simone felt it today,” Martinos said. “She looked confident every shot she took. I’m so happy for my team because they never gave up and kept confident in everything we were trying to do. When your team hits big shots at the end, the best.”
Molly McCrea netted a teamhigh 11 points for Allentown, which has to regroup before sectional tournament play begins.
“They fought hard and and were aggressive,” Redbirds coach Dana Wells said. “Simone came away with a great shot in the end, but there are little things along the way we did well with. I told them moving into states we are a great basketball team and we look like we are going to get a three or four seed.”
The Irish move on to face topseeded Ewing in Tuesday’s semifinals at CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton.
“We just need to play as a team, play together and do all the little things,” Pintinalli said. “If we all do our parts, we’ll be great.”
NOTRE DAME (44)
Pintinalli 5-0-14, Banas 5-0-10, Lynch 2-0-4, Ramirez 2-0-5, Primerano 0-1-1, Diaz 0-0-0, Farnan 1-0-2, C. Foley 1-0-2, Connolly 2-1-6. Totals: 18-2-44
ALLENTOWN (42)
K. McCrea 3-2-8, Cruz 3-0-9, Landgraf 4-2-10, M. McCrea 4-1-11, Sebar 2-0-5, Olhovsky 0-0-0, Patten 0-0-0. Totals: 16-5-42.
Notre Dame (15-8) 9 17 5 13 — 44 Allentown (15-4) 9 10 15 8 — 42
3pt goals: Pintinalli 4, Ramirez, Connolly (ND). Cruz 3, M. McCrea, Sebar (A).