DES MOINES — For the first time since 1981, the Notre Dame High School boys basketball team finds itself in the Class 1A state semifinals.
Seniors Shay Stephens and Payne Prottsman combined to scored 29 of the Nikes’ 34 first-half points and the Nikes withstood a furious Bellevue comeback to post a 68-62 win over the Comets in a Class 1A state quarterfinal game Tuesday afternoon at the Casey’s Center.
Fourth-ranked Notre Dame (25-2) will play top-ranked Fort Dodge St. Edmond (24-2) in a semifinal game at 2 p.m. Thursday. The Gaels advanced with a 60-44 win over Woodbine in the first quarterfinal of the day.
Bellevue bows out with a 22-4 record.
“It’s huge,” said Stephens, who scored a game-high 26 points, 21 coming in the first half. “We have a lot of big pieces. Big stage. Me being a senior, being my last year, just keeping my teammates up and go through adversity. Obviously they were coming back, getting us tired, running us. It’s just really important to pull together as a team and buckle down.”
“At halftime we talked about coming out and playing like it’s zero to zero. We knew they were going to make a run,” Notre Dame coach Dan Kies said. “We’re battled tested enough. We just need to hang in there, stay calm and do our thing. Take a little bit better shots and find a way to get it done.”
The game hinged on three key plays in the second half.
* After the Comets cut a 16-point deficit to 38-32 midway through the third quarter, Notre Dame senior Eli Oleson knocked home a 12-footer from the right wing to stem the tide. He had an assist on a Stephens 3-pointer on the next Notre Dame possession to push the lead back to 11.
“It was a big shot. I kind of struggled, but that’s all right. I made one that matters,” said Oleson, who finished with four points. “After I hit that, I had a pass to Shay on the next possession and he hit a three. That was huge.”
* After Bellevue pulled within 52-47 early in the fourth quarter, Griffin Kies stepped up and drained a clutch 3-pointer to once against stem the tide.
“I really didn’t think I was going to get that open, but it felt nice when I saw it go,” said Griffin Kies, who scored 12 points, including 4-of-4 from the free-throw line in the last 1 minute, 5 seconds.
* Notre Dame junior Tatum Warner, the smallest player on the court, once against came up huge. He drew a foul on Bellevue’s 6-5 center KeShawn DeShaw, sending him to the bench with his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter. DeShaw had scored 10 points in the third quarter.
“I saw the ball. I saw him jump and go up for it, so I just jumped and ended up getting a foul on him,” said Warner, who knocked down four points. “That was a huge foul. He was hot in the second half, so it was good to get him out of the game.”
The Nikes now try to match the 1981 team and advance to the state championship game.
“We’ll take a deep breath, enjoy this day and get back to work (Wednesday) morning,” Coach Kies said. “We still have to do what we do, what we’ve done all year. That’s the reason we got here. It’s a good term we’re going to face. I think we can match up with them. Hopefully it’s a tight one and we can pull it out.”