Notre Dame rides
clutch free throw shooting
to Saturday’s Div. 2 state
championship game
By Justin A. Rice
It didn’t.
“I kind of just got back up and took my regular routine, what I always do, and knocked them down,” the Notre Dame senior guard said after hitting 6-of-9 from the foul line – all in the second half – in a 46-38 victory over Arlington Catholic on Monday at TD Banknorth Garden. “I got up there and knew what I had to do for the team and put them down.”
Taking a 34-23 lead into the final quarter after holding what seemed like a perpetual 10-point lead most of the game, Notre Dame (20-5) didn’t score until the 3:45 mark of the final session. A couple of minutes later, Arlington Catholic ripped off a 9-0 run that was finally halted by a pair of Reilly free throws with 1:45 to play, bumping the Cougars’ lead back to 40-35.
Then Arlington Catholic’s Kelsey Roberson, who scored a team-high 14 points, split a pair of her own free throws. The rebound of the second shot was knocked loose by Arlington Catholic’s Nicole Catizone and into the hands of her teammate, Cara Paladino, who was immediately stripped by Notre Dame’s Nellie Kennedy (11 points).
That pinball sequence set up another trip to the free throw line for Reilly, who hit the first of two shots to put NDA up, 41-35, with 1:07 left.
At the other end, Roberson, a senior guard, missed three consecutive 3-point attempts, with the rebound of the third shot landing in Reilly’s arms. That’s when Roberson, who led her team with a game-high 20 points, rushed Reilly like a baserunner taking out a catcher at home plate. The ball never left Reilly’s mitts, however, and she subsequently knocked down another pair of free throws.
“We needed a rebound. I was just going hard for the ball,” Roberson said. “We were running out of time. If we got the loose ball, great, we could’ve tied it up. (I was) just going for the ball.”
Reilly hit three more free throws before the end of the game as the Cougars shut the door on Arlington Catholic (23-3) and punched their ticket to the DCU Center in Worcester, where they will play on Saturday against the winner of today’s Millbury-Monument Mountain game.
But Roberson was pretty close to reversing that fortune.
“She was definitely a good outside shooter,” Reilly said of her defensive assignment. “She was a good player, tough to guard. Our team came together and tried to shut her down as much as possible.
“They definitely picked up on defense,” Reilly said, speaking of Arlington Catholic’s fourth-quarter comeback. “With us this always happens. Teams get close with us when we’re up and we get close with teams when we’re down.”
Notre Dame was forced to crawl back against Walpole in the South Sectional final for a 53-50 victory. Reilly said her teammates told one another they wouldn’t allow Arlington Catholic to come as close to beating them as Walpole did, a sentiment Notre Dame coach Michael Barrett was glad to overhear in his huddles down the stretch.
“That gave me a jolt, they said ‘We’re not gonna lose it,’” Barrett said. “They’ve been in this situation with teams. They knew how to react to it.
“They came at us hard and we expect them to. I told them at the start of the fourth quarter they were going to come out extremely hard and they did.”
After beating Medfield in the first round, 59-45, and Hopkinton in the quarterfinals, 62-46, the victory against Arlington Catholic (a No. 2 seed out of the North bracket) marked the deepest postseason run ever for Notre Dame.
“I’m pumped. We never thought we’d make it to this game let alone (to play the) Western Mass. (champion),” said senior guard Jessica Aruda, who will play for Babson next season.
Aruda (12 points) also said the team was nervous about playing at the Garden.
“Once we got onto the court, we started to lose the goosebumps and were ready to play,” she said. “We’ll probably be just as nervous (on Saturday) as we were tonight. Hopefully it goes away.”
There was no question those goosebumps returned in the fourth quarter on Monday night. Yet Arlington Catholic kept sending Reilly to the foul line.
“Kelsey’s a tough kid,” Barrett said of Reilly, who will play lacrosse for Stonehill College next year. “She always guards their best player on the other team, whether she’s 6-5 or 6-1. She shut down the best player on Walpole. Kelsey’s tough as nails.”
To listen to Reilly tell it, she was just doing what she always does.
“Dribble twice, roll out and hit the shot. It’s what I do in practice every day. I just got up there and did the same thing.”
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