NDCL ‘Sisters’ Prevail on Senior Night
February 14, 2018 by Rich Kelly

Most families know that sisters sometimes squabble over things.

GAME PHOTOS: http://smu.gs/2EXIqHb

However, at crunch time, when discernment is needed, they also band together to battle any foe in their paths.

Wednesday night, the NDCL Lions went up against a Western Reserve Academy team featuring a pair of sisters, senior Jade DuVal and sophomore Jai DuVal, and the pair did some serious damage by scoring 14 first-period points and dominating the backboards to open an early 17-6 lead after one quarter.

But NDCL held Jai scoreless the rest of the way, and using much better defense in the second half, combined with some opportune offense from seniors Lexi Hammer and Olivia DeJohn and sophomore Emma Liberatore, rallied for a thrilling 49-47 victory.

“This being Senior Night, we knew the girls would be amped up tonight,” NDCL coach Joe Spicuzza said. “The emotions of it all does change things, and we’ve gotten off to slow starts before this season and were able to come back, so there was no panic tonight either. The girls knew what they had to do.”

The Lions closed out the first half with a 10-0 run to narrow the gap at the half to 21-18. Then, with Hammer and Liberatore joining DeJohn with six points each in the third period, NDCL (13-6) took a lead.

A brief Pioneer spurt midway through the fourth period regained a slim 45-43 lead for WRA. But a DeJohn 3-pointer on an inbounds play regained the NDCL lead with 2:01 left to play, and that lead held up, capped off by an Abby King basket with 18 seconds left — even after a turnover with 9.5 seconds left gave the Pioneers (7-7) one last shot, which fell far short of its mark.

DeJohn was all smiles after the game, and rightfully so.

“I knew we could come back, even after the bad start,” she said. “We hang our hats on our defense, so we felt if we could just pull together, we could get the job done. Jade DuVal is some kind of player, and we didn’t box out very well early in the game. We’ve played against other big girls this season, and you just have to keep working hard and get better.

“Our defense really picked it up in the second half. We were able to keep her away from the basket more, and we just handled the task at hand.”

After getting hammered on the boards by a 47-17 count, with Jade DuVal matching her point total with 25 rebounds, it all came down to shutting down the inside game of the Pioneers, and working on fundamental issues.

“One thing we have worked very hard on all season is doing a better job rebounding, bodying up all the time, and also not worrying about fouling. That got us tonight when they dominated the boards inside,” Spicuzza said. “I told the girls not to worry about that because you also just can’t keep giving up as many layups as we were doing. It’s fairly simple basketball.”

The Lions got their first lead of the game since the early minutes when Liberatore took a pass from Hammer on a fast break for a layup that took a 22-21 lead. Four more tie scores got NDCL to the 2:37 mark of the contest on the short side of a 45-43 game.

Kaelin Ettinger split a pair of free throws to cut the gap to one point, DeJohn hit her third 3-pointer of the half to regain the lead, and Annie Carney tallied both of her points of the game from the free throw line to extend it to 49-45.

Nine of 10 Lions scored in the game. Hammer led the way with 13, and DeJohn added 11.

Despite the huge gap in rebounding totals, eight Lions grabbed rebounds, many coming at crucial times.

“In spite of how bad we got mugged on the boards, it was great to see freshman Ally Ziegler come in and play some dirty defense for us,” the coach said. “She had a huge role in keeping Jade DuVal away from the basket in the second half. Everybody did great when they had to make plays.”

Senior Anna Geduldig, who underwent surgery on a hip pre-season after battling her way through the soccer season with a congenital condition, still made her presence felt on the bench.

“We’re all just like family as a team,” she said. “We want to get better, and we did, as the season went along fairly well for us. We fight hard all the time, and being part of it all as manager is important, too.”

Including contributions by Kate Shaughnessy and Halle Sarkisian, who both provided solid efforts and energy off the bench, this indeed became a Senior Night for Lions to celebrate and remember for years to come.