NCA Evens the Score with Notre Dame Prep

Ron Bailey, Publisher

February 26, 2007- Saturday, National Christian Academy (Fort Washington, MD) avenged an earlier loss to i95Ballerz.com’s second ranked, Washington area high school team Notre Dame Academy, 90-86, in overtime. In what very well could be the game of the year, NCA, in their gym, handed Notre Dame (30-1) its sole loss of the season, and in the process moved its own record to 20-3 and a likely bump up from their present number three i95Ballerz.com Power Poll ranking.

NCA was led in scoring by junior David Diakite (17 points), along with seniors Brian McMikle (15 points) and Antonio Haymon (15 points). Notre Dame was paced by senior Jeremiah Bowman (25 points), and junior Travon Vann (12 points).

Jumping out to a 19-8 lead, NCA, coached by Trevor Brown, seemed to hit on all cylinders. By the 2:37 mark of the second quarter, their lead stood 36-26.

Being a team that continues with its game plan despite the circumstances, Notre Dame did just that, managing a 15-2 run, producing a 41-38 halftime lead. Both Bowman and Vann were instrumental, with the former’s steal and subsequent foul shots giving the team a one point lead, and Vann’s layup right before the buzzer extending it to three.

NCA started the second half playing a significant amount of zone defense, something Notre Dame’s coach, Tim Fudd expected as during the school’s previous match up, Brown employed a lot of man to man looks. Resultantly, they were able to repeatedly find teammates on the baseline, leading to a five point lead with around six minutes to play.

David Diakite (left), and Travon Vann (right), join Jeremiah Bowman (33) in awaiting the outcome of his foul shot.

That deficit didn’t daunt Brown’s charges, who after two McMikle layups and an alley-oop baseline dunk by Haymon, regained the scoring advantage around a minute and a half later.

The teams played leapfrog with the lead afterward, setting up a truly memorable end of regulation. First up in the monster play department was NCA’s sophomore guard, Rodney Clark (12 points). With 6.2 seconds to go and the game tied at 75, Clark received what seemed to be an inadvertent foul, and sank both charity stripe attempts awarded – the first one rattling in.

“The team needed it” said Clark, who also supplied “I definitely think so” when asked if those were the biggest shots of his career at NCA.

His coach, Brown, is happy with his young player. “Rodney has really been playing well for the last 10-12 games” he stated. “I’ve been trying to work on him to stay focused and be serious”.

Focus is something Notre Dame’s Bowman would soon display himself, for after Clark’s foul shots put his team down two, Bowman raced the ball down the court, looking for a shot – as everybody in attendance knew he would. As a reward for his exploits, the future Marist student athlete was fouled with half a second to go.

From the outside looking it, it never seemed as if Bowman contemplated missing his foul shots, and he didn’t. “They were regular free throws” said Jeremiah of making both of those pressure packed attempts. “I just blocked out the noise.

Fudd noted Bowman “has been huge for us all year”, and despite “a couple of bad plays”, their relationship has grown to the point where “I can challenge him”, leading Jeremiah to display “the proper response”.

In the extra session, Notre Dame was able to earn an 84-80 lead, before a three ball from NCA’s Clark set the score 84-83. After two more foul shots from Bowman, Notre Dame would not score again, as NCA finished the game on a 7-0 run, causing some of their students gathered for homecoming celebrations to storm the court after the final bell.

Fudd and his charges tipped their hats to Brown and NCA, and then across the board hoped the two school’s paths would cross in an upcoming Tennessee-based tournament of Christian schools. Brown et al welcomed the opportunity.

It’s too bad that possible rubber match will not take place in the D.C. area, for it rivaled the second game, that contest would me a must see.