In a rematch of last year's Rotary Tournament finale, Notre Dame, this time, was the more dominant team, beating Cal-Mum, 43-35.
"We didn't really have an identity early in the season last year and it showed," said ND's head coach Tom McCulley. "They were a mature team and we weren't really there yet. This year I think we probably had the edge maturity."
The star of the game was Stevie Wilcox, who scored 17 points and seemed in command of her game from the start. She was named tournament MVP.
"We were ready to bring it and play as a team and work together because when we do, we're unstoppable," Wilcox said.
The Lady Irish are always tough on defense and McCulley said that's what he saw from his team again, especially in the first half, when Notre Dame held the Lady Raiders to six points. Guard Morgan Rhodes was a big part of that, he said.
"Morgan was steady all throughout," McCulley said. "She got some steals and helped us with ball pressure so we weren't allowing them to get comfortable in their sets, maybe not as quickly as they would like. I think most of the time, when I looked up, by the time Cal-Mum got in their sets there was 16 seconds off the close. I was shocked by that. That puts a lot of pressure on the offense to execute."
Margret Sutherland and Natale Thornton also had big games. Sutherland scored 10 points and Thornton scored nine. Both were a strong presence under the boards.
Callie McCulley added six points.
For Cal-Mum, Elyse Van Auken scored 12 points.
Besides Wilcox at MVP, the all-tournament team was Taylor Gadd, Attica, Ryann Stefaniak, Batavia, Elyse Van Auken, Cal-Mum, Margaret Sullivan, Notre Dame, and Callie McCulley, Notre Dame.
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