HIGH SCHOOL PLAYOFFS : Notre Dame Shows Nerve in a 61-45 Victory : Basketball: Knights eliminate defending champion Lompoc, get rematch with Nordhoff.

Nervous?

The girls on the Notre Dame High basketball team had a right to be.

They were playing in their first-ever home playoff game Wednesday. And their opponent was Lompoc--the defending Southern Section Division III-A champion.

Again, nervous?

The apparent answer in the form of a question: Does a 61-45 victory over Lompoc in the first round of the playoffs sound like a team with the jitters?

“No,” said Notre Dame coach Rob Di Muro. “We’ve won a lot of games and been together a long time.”

Too long to fall to an overmatched Braves team.

The host Knights (18-6) rolled to a 33-18 halftime lead by taking control of the backboards to the tune of 22-7 and didn’t look back.

Ashly Ritter scored 12 of her 16 points in the first half and Maggie Dixon, who added 11 points and 12 rebounds, was so nervous she found time to make sure the pregame warmup music was cued-up properly.

“It’s part of being a captain, I guess,” Dixon said with a laugh. She was also laughing when she came out of the locker room 20 minutes before game time and exchanged a few bars with the Knights’ deejay.

Lompoc, which had to win its last four games to have a shot at defending its title in the playoffs, didn’t find too many reasons to smile, save a 25-point effort from Colleen Mitchell.

The Braves (13-12) trailed early and couldn’t catch up. Notre Dame’s 38-20 overall rebounding edge was a main reason.

“I was afraid of that,” said Lompoc Coach Sherman Hansen. “We knew they had some height and that hurt us.”

Perhaps the revenge factor also had something to do with it. In the second round, the Knights will play Nordhoff, which eliminated Notre Dame in the first round last season.

“That was a bitter loss,” Di Muro said. “We feel like we’re playing a lot better (this year).”

At the very least, they’re a lot less nervous.