Notre Dame 55, Carmel 49

Carmel's defense did a great job to stop Notre Dame's inside game.

So the visiting Dons did the next best thing and went long distance to spoil the Corsairs home opener, 55-49, in an East Suburban Catholic Conference opener Friday night.

Notre Dame sophomore Shawn Wallace led the way with 18 points, including three 3-pointers.

"Wallace is a quick kid and is only a sophomore and has really come along," Dons coach Tom Les said.

Notre Dame juniors Jimmy Martin and Mike DiGregorio both sank a pair of 3s and finished with 11 points. Senior T.J. Malone added 11 points, 8 assists and 3 steals.

"It was our best game of the season," Martin said. "But we didn't play good defense in the first half."

Les was happy with the victory.

"I thought Carmel played real hard," he said. "They came out a lot more determined than we did, and I thought they played a great game. We made a couple of great defensive plays at the end that saved it for us. Every time we put in a 3, they answered."

Jordan Sivertsen led the Corsairs with 15 points, including two 3s, and David Venegoni, who just returned to the lineup Monday due to an ankle injury suffered during football, had 13 points.

"In the third quarter, we gave them too many open shots," Sivertsen said. "Then we had some problems on the offensive side."

Notre Dame (2-2) led 28-22 at halftime. Sivertsen started the second half by sinking a 3, Venegoni scored 2 on a hook shot and Dan Meegan scored on a tap in, as Carmel tied the score 29-29 with 4:35 left in the third quarter.

But the Dons scored 7 unanswered points to take a 37-31 lead and led 40-36 at the end of the third.

Notre Dame led 47-41 midway through the fourth, but Sivertsen and Jack Baucus (6 points) had consecutive layups to bring the Corsairs within 47-45.

But Wallace gave the Dons a 52-49 cushion and they held on.

Carmel fell to 1-5 overall.

"We had a great start in the third quarter, but then we did a reverse and let them end the quarter well," Corsairs coach Jon Baffico said. "I felt overall our effort was good. It's going to take us a couple of weeks to really get our stride and it's something we're going to build on."

Woodstock 63, Grayslake N. 43: Tony Herman scored 15 points in the road loss for the Knights. Noel DeLaMar had 10 points for Grayslake North (2-3)

Antioch/RL rescheduled: The North Suburban Prairie Division teams were scheduled to play Friday night at Round Lake, but a wrestling match was taking place.

The basketball game was moved to Tuesday, Dec. 11.