Basketball Recap: Menlo School Beats Notre Dame for Their Third Straight Victory

Knights

Margin (Wins)

12/03/24 vs Independence	55
12/07/24 vs Leigh	39
02/25/25 vs Pacific Grove	34
01/20/25 vs Summit Shasta	32
11/30/24 vs Fremont	30

With a playoff win on the line, Menlo School rose to the challenge on Thursday. They blew past the Notre Dame Tigers 51-26. The Knights have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won nine matchups by 21 points or more this season.

It was another big night for Ruiqi Liu, who dropped a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds. The dominant performance also gave her a new career-high in field goal percentage (88%). Karen Xin was another key player, going 6-for-9 en route to 17 points.

Menlo School was working as a unit and finished the game with 11 assists. They are 14-1 when they've passed the ball that well.

Notre Dame's loss came despite strong showings from Mika Cary and Sammy Kakala. Cary shot 56% from the field to rack up 15 points and three steals, while Kakala posted four points in addition to five boards and four steals.

The win was the third in a row for Menlo School, bringing their record for this year to 17-8. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 56.0 points over those games. As for Notre Dame, they have traveled a rocky road recently, having lost seven of their last nine contests. That's put a noticeable dent in their 15-9 record this season.

Menlo School didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next game, a 54-51 victory against Harker on the 1st. As for Notre Dame, they also wasted no time getting back out on the court and have already played their next match, a 47-37 defeat against Lowell on the 4th.