Alemany Leads by Too Many Too Early, Beats Notre Dame

Notre Dame High basketball Coach Mickey Cady had a migraine before Friday night’s game at Alemany.

Afterward, he needed more than Excedrin to cure what was ailing him.

Cady’s headache and his team both took a beating, Notre Dame losing to Alemany, 55-43, in a game that wasn’t that close.

“The headache got worse about the end of the first quarter,” Cady said.

That was when Alemany began to make its move. From an 8-8 tie, the Indians scored 11 of the next 13 points to take a 19-10 lead one minute into the second period.

Notre Dame stayed with Alemany, closing to within 21-16 on a jump shot by Jeff Antoon, but the Indians went on 14-4 run to close out the quarter with a 35-20 advantage.

Alemany forward Dave Swanson did the most damage, scoring 14 of his game-high 22 points in the first half.

Antoon, who hit his first four shots, led the Knights with 10 points at intermission.

That was in contrast to Notre Dame guard Josh Oppenheimer, the Knights’ second-leading scorer, who missed his first seven shots and finished one for nine with four points.

Swanson put in eight more points in the third period, including a vicious slam dunk over Notre Dame center Kurt Schmeiderer, as Alemany’s lead bulged to 47-30 by the end of the quarter. Alemany led by as many as 20 points on several occasions in the fourth quarter before Notre Dame scored the game’s final eight points.

Swanson hit 9 of 14 shots and 4 of 4 free throws, while leading Alemany with eight rebounds. Bill Lucid and Fred Dear added 10 points each as the Indians improved to 9-2 in the Del Rey League and 17-6 overall.

Antoon led Notre Dame (6-13, 5-5) with 11 points. Schmeiderer added 10 points and 11 rebounds.

“Swanson was great,” Cady said. “We said before the game we wanted to stop him, and obviously we didn’t do that. He’s tough to stop. If he doesn’t get the MVP of our league, I’ll be surprised.”