Notre Dame rolls over Maine West

For a Maine West boys basketball team having trouble generating offense down the stretch this season, trying to keep pace with fast-moving, slick-shooting Notre Dame was a tall order in the Class 4A regional semifinals Wednesday night at Evanston.

And Notre Dame has a lot of firepower.

Start with Division-I prospect Anthony Sayles (21 points on 8-of-13 shooting) and support from high-flying slam-dunkers like Troy D'Amico and Jason Bergstrom and it added up to a 57-28 Notre Dame win, propelling the high-flying Dons into the Evanston regional finals Friday night against host Evanston for a spot in the Niles North sectional next Tuesday.

The eighth-seeded Dons (19-10) literally raced to an 18-7 lead after one quarter and even when the Warriors played good defense and held Notre Dame to 6 points in the second quarter, the 10th-seeded Warriors (13-16) could only manage 6 themselves.

"Our inability to put the ball in the hole was the difference in this game," said a disappointed Tom Prokopij, Maine West's head coach.

That opportunity would not present itself again as Notre Dame scored the first 10 points of the second half for a 34-13 lead on the strength of a Jimmy Murphy steal and hoop, a D'Amico hoop inside, a Sayles 3-pointer and a Bergstrom 3 to follow. The Warriors didn't score in the quarter until Sean Collins converted a free throw nearly halfway in. For the game, Prokopij's words were prophetic: Maine West shot just 9-of-35 from the floor and 5-of-15 from the free throw line.

Still, for Prokopij, it didn't diminish his pleasure in the senior class he'll miss going forward but it left a bright spot in the underclassmen he has coming back who have been registering a lot of playing time, like Isaiah Siem-Davis, Lucas Glaister, Danny Kentgen and Wednesday's high-scorer, Jared Pearson.

"We had a good group of kids," he said, and the returnees will be working on their shooting touches this summer for sure.