Defense is critical for G-LR
By MATT LEVINS
mlevinsmlevins
DES MOINES — Defense has been the key to success for the Notre Dame High School boys basketball team all season.
Defense carried the Nikes to a share of the SEI Superconference South Division title, a district championship and a substate crown.
Defense carried Notre Dame to its first state tournament appearance in 27 years.
Defense, Notre Dame coach Ryan Rump preaches, wins championships.
So it came as no surprise defense was critical once again during Monday afternoon’s Class 1A state quarterfinal game at Wells Fargo Arena.
Only this time it was George-Little Rock’s defense which determined the outcome, a 46-34 victory which ended Notre Dame’s season.
“Tip your cap to George-Little Rock. Like I told the guys, sometimes you just have to tip your cap to your opponent. George-Little Rock was just a better team than we were (today),” Rump said. “Any time you score just 34 points, you are going to have a hard time winning a basketball game, especially against a team like George-Little Rock. That was the story (today).”
The Mustangs’ quick, athletic defense held Notre Dame to a season-low 34 points on just 31-percent shooting (13-of-42). The Nikes’ previous low was 51 points against Holy Trinity, a game the Nikes won.
“We just knew their personnel and knew what they liked to do,” George-Little Rock coach Ben Gerleman said. “They’ve got two really good players (center Nathan Giannettino and guard Chris Kirk). We knew we had to do a good job on those two kids.”
George-Little Rock did exactly that. Giannettino was limited to nine points, seven below his average, on 3-of-9 shooting.
“We tried to frustrate their big guy by putting someone in front of him and bringing backside help,” said George-Little Rock guard Trev Fiedler. “It worked.”
“They packed it in the middle and made it tough to get the ball in the post,” Giannettino said. “They had a lot of hands everywhere. They were very athletic and that hurts us. We have a lot of strong post players on this team, unfortunately we couldn’t get any shots to fall.”
Notre Dame stayed with the Mustangs early and held a 10-9 lead after one quarter.
But the Mustangs’ defense began to clamp down on the Nikes in the second quarter, squeezing them to just six points.
“In the second quarter we had a hard time establishing anything we wanted to do,” Rump said. “We got ourselves back in it in the third quarter. We were still in it in the fourth quarter, we just couldn’t hit enough shots.”
The Mustangs saved their best defense for Kirk.
Kirk, who was averaging 12.6 points a game, was held scoreless for the first time all season. With Fielder hounding his every step, Kirk was 0-of-5 from the field and had an uncharacteristic five turnovers.
“I just tried to stay in his hip pocket the whole game,” Fiedler said. “We definitely wanted to keep him down, but you never think you are going to shut anybody out. Shutting him out was definitely a big surprise to us.”
“We completely wiped their No. 2 kid out of the game,” Gerleman said. “When you take one of their top two kids out of the game, someone else has to step up.”
Still, the Nikes were within nine points entering the fourth quarter. Once again the Mustangs’ defense rose to the occasion, holding Notre Dame to seven points in the last eight minutes.
Defense does win championships. And defense has carried George-Little Rock within two wins of its second state championship in three years.
“We accomplished a lot of our goals (today). We just didn’t make enough shots,” Rump said. “Thirty-four points might win you a grade-school game, but not a high school game, especially against a really good team like George-Little Rock.”
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