Hosts with the most
NDC advances to Tip-Off finale with blowout win
| Box |

SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – Notre Dame played host to the Miami-Hamilton Harriers in the first round of the Holiday Inn Tip-Off Tournament Friday.  The Falcons advanced to the Saturday final with a solid 115-52 victory on their home floor.

Notre Dame (2-1) opened a 15-6 lead over the opening five minutes of the game.  Both the Falcons and Harriers then exchanged field goals for most of the first half.

Notre Dame shot the ball well in the opening period (58.3 percent on 36 attempts), but Miami-Hamilton (1-2) stayed in the game by creating turnovers.  The Harriers forced 12 first-half miscues, cutting into NDC’s scoring opportunities.  The Falcons did go on a run late to build a 49-30 lead by halftime.

Senior point guard Jerome Pierce (Toledo, OH) hit four first-half 3-pointers to lead the NDC attack. 

The Falcons continued their hot shooting in the early moments of the second frame, taking a 68-34 lead by the 14:48 mark, when sophomore center Danny Wright (Collins, OH) wheeled around his man in the left block to score two.  By the midway point of the second stanza, Notre Dame had built an insurmountable 82-43 lead by hitting 11 of their first 18 attempts in the period (61.1 percent).

Pierce fueled the 10-minute outburst for the Falcons, knocking down four more shots from beyond the arc.  With the game in hand by the 10-minute mark, Pierce came out with 30 points on the stat sheet on 11-of-18 shooting.  Despite not playing the final 10 minutes, he finished as the game-high scorer with his first 30-point performance of the season.

 In the game’s final 10 minutes, NDC maintained a 40-plus point lead.  The lead allowed Head Coach Kevin Bille to work in several young players and try various line-up combinations.

“I challenged our guys at halftime to really execute some different things in the second half,” said Bille.  “Our starters and our young players came out and did just that.  They executed and did a lot of things well.”

Among several newcomers to log significant minutes Friday, Dan Jones (Jr/Niles, OH) and Zach Jacobson (Fr/Windham, OH) stood out on the floor and in the game’s final box score.  Jones, a transfer from Cuyahoga CC, scored 17 points and hauled down six rebounds.  The 6-foot-3 forward connected on five of seven field goal attempts, including three 3-pointers.  Jacobson, a first-year forward, who was a standout at Wyndham High School, scored 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting, while collecting nine rebounds.

In addition to Jones, Jacobson, and Pierce, junior guard Kyle Miller (Piketon, OH) was also an important part of the NDC offense. Miller scored 25 points and notched five rebounds and five assists.

As a team, Notre Dame shot a blistering 64.1 percent (25-for-39) in the second half.  Pierce and company combined to hit on 69.2 percent (9-for-13) of their second half attempts from 19-feet-9-inches.  For the game, NDC shot 61.3 percent (46-for-75) from the field.

The Falcons out-rebounded the Harriers, 56-35.  Junior forward Sean Cornell (Ravenna, OH) matched Jacobson’s nine boards to lead the team.

Darin Wyly led Miami-Hamilton with 16 points.

Notre Dame’s 115-point barrage is the most they’ve posted in a game since hitting for 115 on Nov. 27, 2004, in a win over Temple Baptist.  It ties the NDC mark for second-most points in a game; the Falcons scored a record 121 points on Nov. 13, 2004.

With the victory Friday, the Falcons advance to the championship game of the two-day home tournament. NDC will face the winner of Bethel (IN)-Indiana Tech in Saturday's finale. Tip off is slated for 6:00pm, following a 4:00pm tournament consolation game.

Notes from the Nest...

Thirty-something: Jerome Pierce's 30-point night moved him to within 100 points of the all-time NDC scoring mark. It was the 5-foot-8 senior's first 30-point game of the season. The standout All-AMC North point guard scored 30-plus points six times in the 2006-07 season.

Hot shots: NDC's shooting mark Friday (61.3 percent) was the highest they've posted in a game since Dec. 9, 2006, when they hit for 63.5 percent against Kentucky Christian. NDC came into Friday's game shooting just 43.5 percent.

Seeing red: Friday's tilt between the Falcons and Harriers was the first-ever meeting between Notre Dame and Miami-Hamilton. MU-H is a regional campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The Harriers compete in the Ohio Regional Campus Conference (ORCC).