Undefeated Inter-Ac leader Academy of Notre Dame arrived at Germantown Academy last Tuesday to take on the second-place Patriots. With the league championship based on the final regular-season win-loss records, it was likely that this contest would decide the 2025 title.

GA, which lost 51-43 to the Irish in the first game of the New Year, could probably secure a share of the championship with a victory. The Patriots would lead the game by 10 points late in the third quarter, but then the Irish outscored them 20-4 the rest of the way for a 41-35 win.

With that outcome, GA's record stood at 4-2 in the league and 13-5 overall, with Notre Dame was 7-0, 19-2. It's unlikely either of these teams will be upset by any of their remaining Inter-Ac opponents and the Irish are in a position to win the league title outright.

The first point of last Tuesday's game came from the foul line as GA freshman Taylor Williams bagged the second of two shots, and a few minutes later the teams were even at 5-5. Later, a lay-up by Notre Dame senior Sophia Hall and a three-pointer by GA junior guard Jennifer Fox made it 8-7 at the quarter, in favor of the Patriots.

In the last minute of the period, GA senior Gabby Bowes went down hard and appeared to suffer an injury to a shin. She would return in the second half, but was clearly not herself.

GA's Fox was very active on defense throughout the game. Each team knew the personnel on the other side, and good defensive efforts overall helped keep the score down. Late in the first period, GA was rushing and missing shots from the perimeter while the Irish couldn't find the hoop on a number of lay-ups. This also kept the numbers on the scoreboard from turning over quickly.

Eighth-grade guard Azzure O'Connor led off the second quarter with a lay-up for the Patriots, but midway through the period the visitors had pulled even at 15-15 with inside scoring by 6'3" sophomore center Grace Nasr and outside shooting by senior guard Catie Kelly.

A little later Germantown had an 18-17 edge, then Fox scored on a fast break and senior point guard Jessica Kolecki knocked down a trey from a little to the left of the keytop. A steal by Fox thwarted Notre Dame's last possession of the first half, and the score was 23-17 at the break.

Notre Dame had been sending sophomore starting guard Riley Davis on and off the court as she committed her second personal foul early in the second quarter and her third with a little under three minutes left in the half.

Points continued to accumulate slowly as the second half got underway. Midway through the third quarter, the Patriots led by four, 25-21.

They gained more separation with back-to-back field goals by sophomore forward Jo Owens. First she drove the left baseline for a lay-up, and then she converted off an offensive rebound. When Bowes scored her only two points of the evening on a transition bucket assisted by O'Connor, GA was ahead by 10 points (31-21) with around 90 seconds left in the third round.

The Irish were able to halve that deficit by the end of the period, with Hall hitting a long trey from near the right corner, and Emma Anthony netting two free throws to make it 31-26 at the three-quarter mark.

Early in the fourth, a basket by GA's Williams off of an offensive rebound was bracketed by a three-pointer and a 15-foot jumper by Notre Dame's Davis. That second "J" began an 8-0 run for the visitors that had them up 37-33 with under three minutes remaining.

With two minutes left, Williams made two free throws for GA, but the Patriots would not score again. They missed both short and long-range shots going down the stretch, and Notre Dame did not score from the floor either. Four-for-six foul-shooting for the Irish put the 41-35 final up on the scoreboard.

Williams, the only Patriot scorer to reach double figures with her 10 points, was backed up by Kolecki and sophomore forward Claire McKee, with six apiece. Fox scored five points and Owens had four, and rounding out GA's total with two points each were Bowes and O'Connor.

Nasr and Davis led Notre Dame with 12 and 11 points, respectively, With Hall adding eight points and Kelly contributing six.