East is 0-10 against Notre Dame since February of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The East Tartans will be playing in front of their home fans against the Notre Dame Titans at 6:00 p.m. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: East has struggled recently with four defeats in a row, while Notre Dame will arrive with eight straight victories.
Last Monday, East was beaten by Ohio Valley Christian 57-26. While losing is never fun, East can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 787th, while Ohio Valley Christian is ranked 380th).
Meanwhile, Notre Dame stacked an 11th blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Monday. They took their matchup on the road with ease, bagging a 56-17 victory over Clay. The matchup was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 32-12.
Notre Dame had a senior duo take command as Gracie Ashley scored 12 points along with eight rebounds and four steals and Katie Strickland dropped a double-double on ten points and 14 rebounds. Ashley hasn't dropped below eight rebounds for five straight games. Ella Kirby was another key contributor, scoring 11 points.
East's defeat was their eighth straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 2-13. That rough patch could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 19.4 points per game. As for Notre Dame, they are on a roll lately: they've won 11 of their last 12 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 16-2 record this season.
East took a serious blow against Notre Dame when the teams last played back in January, falling 60-14. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Kirby, who went 8 for 15 from beyond the arc en route to 26 points and 3 assists. Now that East knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
