Notre Dame falls to York Institute in Region 4-AA opener

Notre Dame's girl’s basketball team suffered a 56-41 home loss to York Institute in the opening round of the Region 4-AA tournament on Friday evening, bringing an end to the Lady Irish’s season. 

Notre Dame (19-9), the No. 2 seed from District 7-AA, faced a large deficit early, clawed its way back, but ultimately came up short against the third-seeded Lady Dragons (20-11). 

“I thought our girls battled hard and payed their hearts out,” Wes Moore said. “They did everything they were asked. They did everything we worked on to prepare.”

It took a little time for that to happen for the Lady Irish, though, being limited to just one first-quarter basket.

Notre Dame trailed 15-2 after one period, but things quickly turned around in the second, using a 15-3 run to pull to within one at the break. 

“We battled back from an early hole, which says a lot about the girls,” Moore said. “We just didn’t convert a couple of shots down the stretch that we needed to cut into the lead a little bit.”

A back-and-forth third quarter kept the two teams close heading into the final period, but York eventually pulled away down the stretch.

“We were just trying to hang in there,” Moore said. “We spent a lot of energy in the first half. We were just trying to keep it close until four or five minutes to go in the game, which we did. Then we had a couple of turnovers and missed a couple of shots, which happens.”

The Lady Irish pulled to within one point on three different occasions on Friday, but never led. 

"We just didn’t have enough time to keep chopping at it,” Moore said. “We’re going to give everyone a dog fight. We’re going to play as hard as we can, and they left it all of the floor.”