Cedarville Rallies Late Ends Falcons Season!

The Notre Dame Falcons had a 4 point lead late and could not hang on as they fell 74-73 to the Yellow Jackets of Cedarville Tuesday night at Murphy Gym. Cedarville with the win improved to 25-8 and became the second team along with Walsh from the AMC South to advance to the NAIA national tournament. The Falcons season came to a close at 19-12.

The Yellow Jackets had four players score in double figures Tuesday. Austin Foote and Chris Beals led the way with 17 and 15 points respectively. Matt Harner chipped in 10 and Derrick Hannon had 10 including a floater with 2.6 seconds remaining that proved to be the game winner.

Cedarville shot 46% from the field including a sizzling 11 of 19 from long range. The Jackets were 9 of 13 from the charity stripe.

NDC was led by four players in double digits. Eric Dummermuth led the way with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Nick McCartney added 15 for the blue and white. Karim McFarlane had 15 and Al Miller added 10 in each of their final games on College road. Danny Wright and Cory Emmerine both completed their careers at NDC. Wright did not play and Emmerine played less than a minute. NDC shot 53% from the field but struggled from beyond the arc going 4 of 12. The Falcons shot 15-20 (75%) at the charity stripe. Cedarville won the battle of the boards 30-29.

It was Cedarville that got off to a hot start and led 12-4 early. The Falcons would get the Cedarville lead down to 1 at 20-19 with a little under 13 minutes in the half after a McCartney trey. A triple by Haddon Anderson would make it 28-21 Jackets halfway thru the first half. Once again the Falcons would get within 2 (33-31) on another McCartney three pointer. A run by the Jackets would make it 41-35 at the half.

The next ten minutes would be played fairly evenly before a 5-0 run by the Jackets would make it 61-53. The Falcons would go on a 8-0 run and Al Miller would tie the game with a triple at the 5:45 mark. The Jackets would go on a 6-0 run (all 6 points by Ricardo Alliman) to make it 67-61 with a little over 4 to play. NDC would go on a 10-0 run and lead 71-67 with 1:34 left. Nick McCartney would counter a pair of free throws by Chris Beals with two of his own to make it 73-69 with just 22 seconds to play. Beals would hit a 3 to make it 73-72 with 14 seconds. McCartney would then miss the front end of a 1 and 1. That would set up Hannon's heroics. Al Miller would have a 3 to win it but it would be off the mark. The Falcons will have several players returning in 2010-11 including Sophomore captains Dummermuth and McCartney. It should be a good squad next year but somehow they will have to replace Karim McFarlane.