On Friday, the Notre Dame Prep Saints faced the Mesquite Wildcats in a battle between two of the state's top teams. Notre Dame Prep took a hard 58-43 fall against Mesquite. While losing is never fun, Notre Dame Prep can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 25th, while Mesquite is ranked fifth).
Notre Dame Prep's loss came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Olivia Frankel, who scored 5 points along with 3 steals. Ayla Keefe was another key contributor, scoring 12 points.
Even though they lost, Notre Dame Prep were working as a unit and finished the game with ten assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Mesquite only racked up 19.
Mesquite was led to victory by Navae Guidry and Vanessa Sepulveda. Guidry scored 21 points, while Sepulveda scored 23 points along with 6 assists and 3 steals. That makes it two consecutive games in which Sepulveda has scored at least 25% of Mesquite's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Lucy Fisher, who scored 8 points along with 11 rebounds.
Notre Dame Prep now has a losing record at 1-2. As for Mesquite, the win was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 3-0.
Notre Dame Prep's road trip will continue as they head out to face Queen Creek at 2:20 p.m. on November 25th. As for Mesquite, they will be playing in front of their home fans against Gilbert Christian at 11:20 a.m. on Saturday.
