Notre Dame Uncovers a Hot Shooter in Carson

In crunch time, the Notre Dame High basketball team turned to its stud. A Division I athlete. An experienced senior.

Glen Carson?

Carson, a USC baseball signee who is best known with the Notre Dame basketball team as a clutch free-throw shooter good for a long basket now and then, made five three-point shots and scored 19 points to lead Notre Dame to a 61-54 victory against San Dimas in the Southern Section III-A championship game Friday at Cal Poly Pomona.

“I kept penetrating and seeing (Carson) wide open on the perimeter,” said Notre Dame swingman Monte Marcaccini, the Knights’ regular go-to guy who is headed to Indiana to play basketball. “He’s like money from three.”

Carson, who made six of 11 shots from the field, said he felt it was going to be his night in warm-ups.

“I love these pressure games,” Carson said. “I step up. I get up for these more than playing Chaminade.

“We’ve got a lot of great shooters on this team. Whoever is feeling it, that’s who takes the shots.”

Knight Coach Mick Cady said the game plan was to use his team’s superior size and force the ball inside, but San Dimas played tough under the basket, so the Knights kicked it out to the perimeter.

Notre Dame will learn on Sunday whom it will meet in the first round of the state Division III playoffs on Tuesday.

After leading by 16 at halftime, Notre Dame (23-6) began to slip in the second half because of a high-pressure trapping defense by top-seeded San Dimas (25-4), which won the Valle Vista League.

The Saints pulled to within 45-44 with a 8-0 run early in the fourth quarter, but Notre Dame answered with a 10-0 spurt, keyed by two of Carson’s three-pointers.

“We said at halftime they were going to make a run,” Cady said. “They’re too good a team not to come back.

“But coming down the stretch, when it got tight, we knew what to do.”

Although Notre Dame had an all-senior starting lineup, it was making its first appearance in a section championship game.

San Dimas made the final last season, losing to La Canada.

The other stars for Notre Dame on Friday were Marcaccini, who scored 16 points, and freshman Eddie Miller, who scored 13 and grabbed nine rebounds.

Cady said he wasn’t surprised that Miller, who missed most of the season with a back injury and has only played seven varsity games, played so well.

“He’s played in games like this before,” Cady said of Miller, who was a member of an all-star American Roundball Corp. team last summer.