City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
—

(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2024-25 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

~~~

Notre Dame wants to be dancing come March. 

No, not the Fighting Irish in the NCAA Tournament. 

The Irish of the Academy of Notre Dame, whose players danced to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Can’t Catch Me Now” in the all-girls private school’s talent show last March after capturing a share of the Inter-Academic League championship. 

“We did it in our Notre Dame bright yellow practice shorts and our kelly green sneakers,” senior guard Catie Kelly said. “It was so funny.”

There was choreography. There were laughs and cheers. There were lightsabers. 

They want to do it all over again.

Last year was undoubtedly a breakthrough for the Irish. The Notre Dame girls won the program’s first Inter-Ac title in a quarter-century, splitting the crown with Germantown Academy and Penn Charter, beating GA at home in the regular-season finale to earn it.

With most of the team back, Notre Dame wants more — the first outright league crown in 30 years. 

“We’re trying to get them not to be complacent and I don’t think they are,” head coach Terry Mancini said. “I think they’re hungry.”

The Irish have been the mix in the Inter-Ac over the years, but it was a league long dominated by Germantown Academy, which won 13 straight at one point and 19 out of 21 titles between 2000 and 2020, along with two others in 1996 and 1997. 

Penn Charter finally broke that spell with back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023. Last offseason, the league suffered one big shake-up when longtime coach Sherri Retif retired from Germantown Academy, with former Notre Dame coach Lauren Power moving within the league to take her spot.

Mancini, who had led St. Basil’s to five straight AACA titles before the school closed in 2021, took over from Power, sliding up from the assistant coach’s role he held the two years previously. The Irish didn’t miss a beat, Lizzie Halligan leading them to a 22-6 record and 10-2 finish in the Inter-Ac; ND, GA and PC each beat one another once to force the three-way tie in a league with no postseason.

Halligan — who averaged 10 points, six rebounds and three assists per game — is off at Scranton, but the rest of the rotation is back: senior guards Catie Kelly, Chloe Knox and Sophie Hall, junior wing Alex Gillin and forward Finley Davis, and a strong sophomore class featuring forward Grace Nasr and guards RIley Davis, Maddie DeFronzo and Sadie Birdsall.

New to the squad is Emma Anthony, a 5-8 guard and Rutgers lacrosse commit who transferred up from Ursuline Academy (Del.).

It’s a group that’s got a bit of everything: a quality post in the 6-3 Nasr (9.0 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 4.0 bpg), who keeps getting better; multiple scoring options led by Riley Davis (12.6 ppg) and the senior guards; high-level defenders, and good size and length across the board. 

Combined with the fact that Germantown Academy graduated a huge 2024 class and Penn Charter’s program is in transition, the Irish are the clear frontrunners entering the winter, and they know it.

“I think it’s more understood, we don’t really talk about that,” Kelly said. “We know we have a target on our back, so it’s just understood that people are coming to play the Academy of Notre Dame, [and] they want to beat us.”

A three-year starter at point guard, Kelly averaged five points, three assists and two steals per game as a junior. Hall, a defensive specialist and soccer standout committed to Delaware, averaged five steals per game along with six points, four rebounds and a couple assists. 

Knox also started last season, as did Nasr and Riley Davis, a two-sport standout who’s a Division I level hooper and lacrosse player. 

The growth of Nasr in the paint will be a significant factor for the Irish this year. She’s got a chance to be a unicorn in the Inter-Ac with her combination of height and impact on both the offensive and defensive end, showing this fall that she can knock down the outside shot, and she’s been more aggressive crashing the glass.

“I’ve been doing some individual work, too, strength and speed work,” she said. “I’ve [also] become more comfortable shooting from the perimeter and with my perimeter defense than I was last season.”

The fifth starter could be Anthony, or any of the returners; Mancini said he could go as deep as 12 during the season. In preseason events, Gillin, DeFronzo, Birdsall, and Finley Davis have all been playing significant minutes and finding ways to chip in, especially defensively and giving them more 3-point shooters on the offensive end. 

“And we’re looking to be more uptempo, more defensively up the floor, a little bit like Wood, run-and-jump, things like that,” Mancini said. “So we’ll see what happens.”

If all goes well, Notre Dame will capture the Inter-Ac title outright for the first time since the 1994-95 season, which could be the first of a new streak starting on the Main Line. 

Just in time for another big dance next March.