Notre Dame Limps to Berth in Semifinals

It is not often that a team makes only four of 14 shots in the final period and still puts away an opponent, but that’s what Notre Dame High did to Corona del Mar in a boys’ Southern Section III-A Division quarterfinal basketball game at Harvard High on Friday night.

The Knights, who had raced to a 17-point halftime lead, finally put away a slower, less physically talented Sea King team, 62-47, with tenacious defense in the final period.

Notre Dame (23-4), which will play top-seeded Morningside in the semifinals Tuesday, forced five turnovers in the fourth quarter and held Corona del Mar (14-15) to nine points on two-of-nine shooting from the field.

“We finally seemed to wear them down,” Notre Dame Coach Mick Cady said. “They’re a very physical team, and we seemed to be leg weary in the third quarter, but they weren’t subbing a whole lot and I think it got to them.”

Notre Dame, which was led by Marcello Anderson-Tellez with 19 points, appeared to have the game well in hand at halftime, leading, 37-20. But Corona del Mar refused to roll over.

Led by Jon Upham, a 6-foot-5 senior forward, the Sea Kings narrowed the deficit to 43-38 on a pair of Mike Susson free throws with 12 seconds left in the third period. But they got no closer.

Upham, firing from long range, scored 10 of his game-high 24 points in the third quarter. But G.C. Marcaccini’s basket on a Bobby DaCorsi assist with a second left in the quarter gave Notre Dame a 45-38 lead entering the final period and Corona del Mar never drew closer than eight points after that.

“We did what we wanted to in the third quarter,” Sea King Coach Bob Orris said. “That was to cut the lead in half . . . . But they never stopped coming at us. They’re a good basketball team.”

G.C. Marcaccini and DaCorsi each had 16 points and eight rebounds for Notre Dame, the Mission League champion.

“This was a big game for us,” said DaCorsi, who scored 10 points in the first half. “We wanted to get revenge for last year’s game, but it was tough because we were favored.”

Corona del Mar defeated Notre Dame in a 3-A Division semifinal last year, but four of the Sea Kings’ five starters on that team have graduated.

Doug Hesse added 13 points for Corona del Mar, which made only 15 of 39 shots from the field. Notre Dame hit 23 of 55 field-goal attempts, but the Knights were only seven of 23 in the second half.