Motzel, Carmel surprise Notre Dame

Carmel Catholic’s 6-foot-5 junior Brandon Motzel wanted to prove that the Corsairs can play with any team.

He accomplished that by scoring a career-high 30 points, including 17 in the first half, as the host Corsairs upset Notre Dame 60-57 in an East Suburban Catholic Conference boys basketball game on Friday night.

It was Carmel’s first conference win this season, while Notre Dame fell to 15-4 overall and 5-3 in the ESCC.

Notre Dame’s Ryan Tompkins (8 points) and Greg Leifel (9 points, 3 3s) started the game with the hot hand, each hitting 2 3-pointers each to lead the Dons to a 22-15 lead in the first quarter.

But Motzel brought the home crowd alive with 14 points in the second quarter. The Corsairs (7-14, 1-8) roared back with a 17-7 rally and led 32-27 at halftime.

The two teams exchanged leads the rest of the game until early in the fourth quarter. Carmel’s Doug Meyer (6 points) sank his second 3-pointer of the game to give the Corsairs a 45-43 lead and the Corsairs never looked back.

Earlier in the season, Notre Dame overwhelmed Carmel 77-55.

“The last time we played them, (Notre Dame) went on a 24-6 run in the third quarter, so we knew that they were going to come after us,” said Carmel coach Tim Bowen, who started his first year at Carmel and has coached 25 years overall. “I think that because it was Notre Dame, in the first quarter we came out a little nervous,” Bowen said “We were trying to get our rhythm going and trying to get our hopes up and see how the game is going to start. We also wanted to be more strong with the ball, eliminate turnovers, do a good job screening so that we can get into our offense. We beat one of the better teams in the state.”

Motzel converted 10 of 12 free throws and brought down a game-best 7 rebounds.

“We wanted to win because we hadn’t gotten a conference win yet and we didn’t feel like losing to them again,” Motzel said. “This wasn’t an upset for us, because we feel that we can win every game. But nobody (else) gave us a chance to win tonight.”

Tim Hendricks added 10 points for the Corsairs.

“(Carmel) had control of the entire game,” Notre Dame coach Tom Les said. “I think they played harder than we did the entire game. They were very aggressive, they made shots and their big guy inside made some shots.”

Rodney Pryor scored 14 points in the first half to lead the Dons with 20 points while Donte Stephenson scored 10 points.

“We weren’t ready for this game,” Pryor said. “We didn’t come out with enough energy and then we just didn’t get any stops on defense.”