New London girls fall at home

NEW LONDON - The New London girls' basketball team had trouble against an aggressive Notre Dame press on Tuesday night, particularly in the first quarter. The Tigers were put in a 20-point hole early in the game and could never climb out of it, eventually falling 76-44.

New London trailed 27-7 after the first quarter, mostly due to a flurry of fastbreak points from Notre Dame and a hot shooting period from beyond the arc.

The Tigers played a much better second quarter, but Notre Dame still outscored them 16-14. Ashlyn McSorley had six points in the second quarter and co-led the team with Layney Loyd with six each at halftime, but the Nikes led 43-21.

Marah Hartrick drained a couple of three-pointers in the third quarter, but Notre Dame still outscored New London 20-10. The Nikes led 63-31 after three quarters and tacked one more point on to that lead in the fourth.

After the game, Tiger head coach Chad Wahls credited Notre Dame's pressure defense for making offense hard to come by.

'We've played five games this year and really haven't experienced a press like that,” Wahls said. 'I know that's the tradition of Notre Dame, to come out and press you. It can be a zone press or man-to-man, so we had gone through that the day before and felt like we had a good handle on it, but they just elevated it to another level.”

Loyd finished the game with 13 points to lead the Tigers in the loss. Hartrick hit four shots from three-point land to finish the game with 12.

Alisha Boles finished the game with eight points. McSorley ended the day with six. Kara Krieger had three points, and Addie Pry closed the night out with two.

New London is now 1-5 on the year and 1-4 in the SEISC South Division. They will be playing at Harmony High School on Friday, Dec. 14, in a road game against Van Buren.