Notre Dame Prep pulled a huge upset in the quarterfinals of the IAAM B Conference girls basketball tournament Tuesday night, knocking off the No. 1 seed, St. John's College Prep, which had not lost to a B Conference opponent this season.
The visiting Blazers trailed by 10 points with 6:30 left in the third quarter before rallying to win 43-40. St. John's (24-2) went into the game 16-0 in the conference and had beaten NDP twice during the regular-season, most recently 42-26 on Feb. 2.
The Blazers, who finished 7-9 in the conference, improved to 10-13 with the win in Frederick Tuesday.
NDP coach Katie Marks said her team turned the game around in the third quarter with several big stops, including some on blocks. Senior shooting guard Marissa Varnado, who led the Blazers with 19 points, scored several times in the run as her team revved up its transition game.
The Blazers turned a 29-19 deficit into a 33-32 lead in the final 6:30 of the third quarter. Junior Marisa DeLuca finished with eight points, eight rebounds and 10 blocks. Two freshmen also played key roles, post MP Suter with nine points and point guard Annika Meyer.
"Obvously we played up on people saying that St. John's was going to run away with it," Marks said, "but we have six sophomores and three freshmen and we start two freshmen. In my nine years, I've only started one freshman and now we have two, so we've been telling them from the beginning the amout of potenial we have. It was just a matter of getting it to click."
The Blazers lost their last five regular-season games, but Marks said they had great practices over the weekend. They defeated Maryvale, 52-16, in Monday's first round.
"Something just clicked," she said. "They played as a team and they just really believed they could do it."
Thursday, the Blazers will travel to St. Timothy's, another team they lost to twice including 53-42 on Jan. 30. Tipoff is at 5:30 p.m. In the other B Conference semifinal, Severn will travel to Annapolis Area Christian Thursday at 5 p.m.
The title game is set for Sunday at 3 p.m. at Stevenson University.