SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – The Notre Dame College women's basketball team built up to a 12-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but the visitors from Fairmont State slowly chipped away at that lead to come back and force overtime. That's when NDC took over for good and found themselves playing at their best to win 78-70.
 
"It was do or die," head coach Lauren Macer said. "I think we took time after the fourth quarter to refocus. How they played in overtime is how I wanted them to play the whole game. It was in us, but we had to find it."
 
At the opening of the game, and at moments throughout the competition, it looked like the Falcons (12-5, 8-2 MEC) had control of their opponent. NDC took an early 23-16 lead after the first quarter and led 40-35 heading into halftime.
 
FSU (7-8, 3-7 MEC) won the third quarter 14-12 to lower Notre Dame's lead to just three points, but the Falcons came out strong in the final 10 minutes, scoring nine-straight points, before Fairmont State's final comeback push.
 
In the second half, NDC made just two of their 11 attempts from three-point range; a low 18.2 percent compared to the Falcons 40 percent season average. Overall, in the last 20 minutes of regulation, the team made 31 percent of its shots while FSU made nearly 48.
 
The Falcons regrouped before overtime to improve on both offense and defense. NDC was four-for-nine shooting, including two-for-four from distance, and held Fairmont State to only one made field goal on three attempts.
 
"I think [during regulation] we were just banking on making threes, and when the shots weren't falling we started looking around and waiting for someone else to step up," said Macer. "We won because we ended up coming together and playing off each other. We communicated better at the end and they didn't let the moment get to them. We've been in close games before so they were able to use that experience."
 
Overtime was highlighted by Seina Adachi, who recorded four points, three rebounds (two offensive) and two assists, and Ciara Reed, who hit two threes.
 
"We knew we could win this game," Reed said on the team's mental state heading into OT. "We knew, as a team, that it shouldn't have been that close anyway. We weren't playing as well as we could have so going into overtime we were going to do whatever it took to get the win we needed."
 
All three of Adachi's rebounds in the final five minutes resulted in points for the Falcons. She scored once herself on a put-back layup and assisted both of Reed's three-point shots.
 
"I usually don't rebound, so I actually surprised myself a little bit," Adachi said. "I wanted to crash and get the ball. It was more of a reaction, I wasn't thinking about it at the moment."
 
While Adachi led the team with 16 points, Kim Cook, Maggie King and Marisa Finazzo each reached double-digit scoring. This is the third-straight game where at least four players have scored 10 or more points.
 
Cook led the team with 12 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season as Adachi led the team with five assists and King and Finazzo each recorded five steals.
 
As the NDC forwards, Cook and King each scored 14 and shot a combined percentage of 68.8.
 
"Maggie and Kim have been big parts of our game," Macer said. "Maggie has really been stepping up lately. She takes her role on the team seriously and does all the little things that help us win. Kim takes her role just as seriously. She's our rebounder and she makes good decisions when she has the ball in her hands."
 
With this win, the Falcons are 2-0 in overtime games this season and 8-1 in home games. NDC has also won 11-straight home games against Mountain East opponents.
 
Notre Dame will play at Wheeling Jesuit on Wednesday, January 17, at 5:30 p.m.