It might be the most basic, elemental explanation for why a team wins or loses a basketball game.
If you put the ball in the basket, your chances of winning increase greatly.
That might be the most obvious explanation of how Toledo Notre Dame came into Lima Senior’s gym and beat the Spartans 71-61 in girls basketball on Thursday night after losing to them by 10 points in late November.
Notre Dame shot 54 percent while Lima Senior hit only 37 percent on Thursday night. In November, it was the reverse, with Lima Senior shooting 40 percent and Notre Dame struggling through a 24-percent shooting night.
It also didn’t hurt the Eagles that the two freshmen in their starting lineup had gained a half-season of experience since November and that they’d acquired transfer Bre Hampton-Bey, a University of Michigan verbal commitment, who came over from Toledo Rogers.
Hampton-Bey scored 24 points to lead Notre Dame (7-6, 6-2 Three Rivers Athletic Conference). Rion Thompson’s 21 points led Lima Senior (8-6, 3-4 TRAC). Essence Cowan scored 14 points and Kierre James had 11 points.
Lima Senior led by four points, 34-30, at halftime and the game was tied 49-49 going into the fourth quarter before Notre Dame pulled away in the last three minutes.
“We were in the game the whole game and shot that poorly. That says something,” Lima Senior coach Vince Halliday said.
“Hampton-Bey is going to Michigan for a reason. She’s really good. She settled everyone down for them offensively,” he said. “I don’t know if we ran out of gas a little bit. I don’t think it was that. They just kind of made the plays down the stretch that we didn’t.
“It ended up being 10 points, but it was a lot closer than that. Fourth quarter is winning time and they took care of business and we didn’t.”
Notre Dame coach Travis Galloway explained his team’s turnaround since November this way:
“We played them Game 3 and they did a great job of speeding us up and make us play faster than we were able to at that time of the season. Our kids, obviously, are more experienced. Hampton-Bey had to sit out the first 11 games after her transfer and this was her second game with us.
“Obviously, she’s a dynamite player who helped us. But I also think our players are starting to figure out what they’re good at and what they’re not good at.
“I thought we did a better job in the second half (defensively) and I thought we did a good job in the fourth quarter down the stretch getting stops and rebounds,” he said.
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