Des Moines, IA- It had been 15 years since #4 Burlington Notre Dame had attended the state tournament and the Nikes had not won a game at the state tournament since their program’s first appearance in 1981. 32 minutes later and Notre Dame wiped all those statements away as the Nikes outlasted #5 Bellevue, 68-62, in the Class 1A Quarterfinals.
Notre Dame knew they had to come into the game prepared, which meant pilgrimages to Carver Hawkeye Arena and Drake University to practice shooting in arenas similar to the Casey’s Center, even with a nine-day layover since the substate championship.
For Nike head coach Dan Kies, there was some worry about how his team would handle that time,
“Right, I hope so. You know, it’s a long week in between. You know, you don’t play anybody after substate for so long, so you’re trying to keep things fresh. You’re watching film. You’re working on different things but trying to keep it so it’s not just so monotonous and boring that they lose interest. So, yeah, we can take a breath, enjoy this day, and then get back at it, you know, tomorrow morning.”
Notre Dame responded by going on an 8 to 2 run, which included a three pointer by Payne Prottsman and three free throws from Shay Stephens. That turned out to be just a small taste of what Stephens would deliver the rest of the half.
Still, Bellevue would answer the call by scoring the last four points of the quarter to make it 15 to 11 in favor of the Nikes at the end of the first quarter. The Nikes responded by going on an 11 to 0 run to start the quarter and outscore the Comets 19 to 7 for the second quarter to take a 34 to 18 halftime lead.
Stephens was responsible for 21 of the team’s 34 points as he buried four threes himself. After hitting just three three-pointers against Calamus-Wheatland, Notre Dame buried nine against Bellevue, an aspect of the game coach Kies was happy to see return at state,
I mean, it’s one of those things. We’ve got Shay, obviously, and then we’ve got Griffin. Payne can knock down threes, Tatum can knock threes down, Kellan can knock down threes, Eli can knock down threes. I don’t think he hit one today, but they’ve all got confidence to shoot it. So, the big thing there is knowing, hey, trust each other. When they’re doubling, Shay, or trying to triple, whatever, find a spot, get open. And he trusts his teammates, you know, so that’s a big thing.”
Despite holding a lead as large as twenty, the Comets found themselves hurtling back into the game after raging back with a 12 to 4 run to start the third quarter and eventually cut the lead to four points, 49 to 45, at the end of the third quarter.
That would be as close as Bellevue would orbit to taking over the Notre Dame lead as a Griffin Kies three pointer proved to be the dagger with the help of the team going 17-22 from the free throw line. It was clear that the Nikes never panicked.
“We knew they’re gonna make a run” said Coach Kies. “You know, they’re here for a reason. They’ve got good athletes, they got size. So, I mean, the big thing is to say we’re battle-tested enough that we just need to hang in there and stay calm, do our thing, you know, take a little bit better shots, and just find a way to get it done, you know.”
Notre Dame will now attempt to make it back to the state championship for the first time since 1981, but standing in their way will be #1 St. Edmond on Thursday, March 12th, at 2 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 1:45 PM.
Notre Dame Scoring: Shay Stephens 26 points, Griffin Kies 12 points, Payne Prottsman 8 points, Kellan Porter 7 points, L.J. Harris 6 points, Tatum Warner 5 points, Eli Oleson 4 points