By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Last season, Notre Dame guard Emma Holtzapfel was one of the state’s most prolific 3-point shooters, making 90 treys in 30 games for a 3.0 average. In her team’s first three game this season, the senior had a problem hitting deep shots, but she returned to form in Wednesday’s 56-52 home court victory over Cooper.
Holtzapfel buried six 3-pointers in the opening minutes to spark a 29-10 scoring run and Notre Dame went on to defeat Cooper, 59-52, to end a five-game losing streak against the four-time defending 9th Region champions.
The Pandas (4-0) ended up making 11 treys during the game and finished with a 33-21 scoring advantage on long-range shots.
“We’ve all been struggling from the behind the arc lately, so we knew a big game was coming, and that happened to be today,” said Holtzapfel, who got 21 of her game-high 27 points on threes.
Cooper (2-3) defeated Notre Dame in last year’s 9th Region tournament championship game. Holtzapfel said her team was fired up going into the rematch and it showed in the first quarter.
“We all felt the devastation last year when we lost (to Cooper),” she said. Before the game, we talked and came out ready. I mean, the energy, we had in warm-ups and coming out of the locker room and into the first quarter. And it just carried through the whole game.”
In the first quarter, nine of the 10 field goals by the Pandas were threes. Holtzapfel, a Bellarmine University recruit, hit six of them and got another basket on a driving layup. The score was 29-10 before a pair of threes by Cooper senior guard Addyson Brissey made it 29-16 at the end of the first quarter.
The Jaguars trimmed the lead to 29-20 early in the second quarter, but Notre Dame was ahead 37-25 at halftime and 50-39 going into the fourth quarter.
In the final minute, the Pandas missed six free throws and the margin slipped to 56-52 before a free throw with two seconds left ended it.
“My whole thing,” said Notre Dame’s first-year head coach George Stoll, “was to make (Cooper) earn everything they get and if they go on a run we’ve got to stop that run right away. And I thought we did those two things rather well.”
Notre Dame shot 46.3 percent (19 of 41) from the field with 11 treys. The team’s other double-figure scorer was senior forward Joselyn Humphrey, who got nine of her 15 points in the first half.
Cooper’s leading scorers were junior guard Haylee Noel with 21 points and senior guard Brissey with 12. The Jaguars shot 35.2 percent (18 of 51) from the field with seven 3-point goals.
“We tried our best to come back. We just couldn’t get things moving in a flow,” said Cooper’s first-year head coach Christian Prohaska.
“This team doesn’t have any let-up in them. They’re competitors, and I love that about them. That’s something they’ve been known for the last four years and we don’t plan on stopping that anytime soon.”
NOTRE DAME 29 8 13 7 — 56
COOPER 16 9 14 13 — 52
NOTRE DAME (4-0): Stallard 3 0 6, McGraw 0 1 1, Young 2 1 5, Holtzapfel 9 2 27, Lawrie 0 1 1, Humphrey 5 3 15. Totals: 19 8 57.
COOPER (2-3): Brissey 5 0 12, Hooper 1 0 2, Noel 8 7 21, Rankin 3 0 8, Scott 3 1 8, Allen 0 1 1. Totals: 18 9 52.
3-point goals: ND — Holtzapfel 7, Humphrey 2, Stallard 2. C — Brissey 2, Noel 2, Rankin 2, Scott. 1.