Notre Dame wins first Wheeling title

Notre Dame senior Rodney Pryor showed little restraint midway through the fourth quarter of a tied championship game in the 33rd annual Wildcat Hardwood Classic.

Pryor confidently rose up and calmly released a shot from about 25 feet. And, oh yes, there was no doubt about it as it softly dropped through the net with 3:40 to play against Niles North.

Pryor's 3-pointer sparked a 12-point run which sent Notre Dame on its way to a 61-50 victory Thursday night and its first Wheeling tournament title.

“That was a huge shot,” Niles North coach Glenn Olson said to Pryor after the game.

“I saw I had a lot of space,” Pryor said, “and I know I could hit big shots like that so I had to take it.”

Tournament MVP Quinton Chievous scored 7 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter and had 17 rebounds for the Dons (13-1), who lost their other Hardwood title game appearance in 2001. Pryor scored 7 of his 15 points in the final 3:40 and had 8 rebounds to earn all-tourney honors.

But Niles North (8-5) didn't make it easy as it made two serious runs from deficits of 12-2 and 42-30 after three quarters against the pretournament favorites.

“We knew coming in we couldn't take any teams lightly and we played really hard to get that ‘W,'” Pryor said.

“We got off to a good start and Abdul (Nader) kind of got on fire,” Chievous said. “We really kept our composure and didn't lose it. We have a really solid core group and we stayed focused and came out with the win.”

The New Mexico-bound Nader had 18 points but shot just 8-for-26 against Cody Neidenbach and Eddie Serrano. Nader and Malachi Nix (15 points) combined for all the scoring in a 15-point run to give the Vikings a 45-42 lead with 4:54 left.

But after Nix hit 2 free throws for a 47-47 tie at 3:55 the Vikings didn't score again until 42 seconds were left.

“You have to expend a lot of energy … and we chased the whole first and third quarters in a physical and intense ballgame,” Olson said. “This was a postseason type of game and it was exhausting. When you're chasing, I think that hurt us.”