Anderson-Tellez Picks Up Slack for Notre Dame

Filling in for injured Notre Dame High star G.C. Marcaccini is no small task, but teammate Marcello Anderson-Tellez certainly made it look easy.

Anderson-Tellez scored 17 of his game-high 24 points in the second half to help the Knights defeat Alemany, 76-58, Thursday night in a Mission League game at Notre Dame.

Anderson-Tellez, a 6-foot-3 senior forward, started in place of Marcaccini--the team’s leading scorer and rebounder who sustained a sprained elbow five days ago--and gave it his best effort.

“G.C. wasn’t out there, so I knew someone had to give an extra-good effort and pick up the team,” Anderson-Tellez said.

Extra effort is exactly what Notre Dame (17-3, 8-0 in league play) needed in the fourth quarter. The Knights held a 44-29 halftime lead but the Indians came out in the third quarter like a new team. Alemany converted nine of 10 field-goal attempts in the third quarter, including six in a row to outscore Notre Dame, 22-11.

Alemany’s Richard Dice scored the first basket of the fourth quarter to close the deficit to 55-53, giving Notre Dame Coach Mick Cady cause for nervousness.

“They started to play afraid in the third quarter,” Cady said of the Knights. “In the fourth quarter, I said we’re either going to play to win or we’re going to play not to lose. And at that point, we were playing not to lose.

“We were just sitting back on our heels and we lost all aggressiveness.”

But the Knights took their coach’s words to heart and put together an 11-0 run for a 66-53 lead with 4 minutes 45 seconds to play. Anderson-Tellez scored six of Notre Dame’s last 10 points to keep Alemany (7-13, 2-6) at bay.

The Knights built an early 18-6 lead on a 16-0 run in the first quarter, then used a 9-0 run in the second quarter for a 36-17 lead.

Notre Dame outrebounded the smaller Indians, 36-20, thanks in great part to 6-5 senior forward Steve Colella, who finished with 14 rebounds and 15 points.

Colella was nearly perfect shooting from the field in the first half, converting his first six attempts before missing his last shot.

Dice, a 6-3 forward, left the game with an ankle sprain late in the first quarter but emerged from the locker room in the second quarter and went on to score a team-high 21 points.