Notre Dame girls heading to first sectional final since 2014 state title run

ROME - Twin sisters Ella and Erin Trinkaus combined to score 55 points and propel Utica's Notre Dame Jugglers into Section III's girls basketball finals for the fist time in a decade.

The Jugglers defeated the Little Falls Mounties 73-48 in the second Class B semifinal at Rome Free Academy. Their opponent for Saturday's championship game will be Marcellus, the No. 3 seed and a 44-38 winner over General Brown earlier in the evening.

No. 1 Notre Dame (21-3) and No. 3 Marcellus (19-3) play Saturday at 5:30 p.m. in Onondaga Community College's Allyn Hall. The two teams last met two years ago when Marcellus defeated Notre Dame 70-57 in a Class B quarterfinal; Marcellus was eliminated in the next round.

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On Wednesday, No. 5 Little Falls (20-4) had the first two baskets of the game before Notre Dame ran off 12 straight points - eight scored by Ella Trinkaus and four by Erin - and took a lead that would grow from there. The Jugglers led 16-6 before Little Falls scored the final five points of the period. Adriana Izzo's three-pointer at the start of the second quarter made the score 16-14, but Ella Trinkaus answered quickly with a basket that started the climb back to a 10-point margin.

Notre Dame led 37-20 at halftime then scored the first 10 points of the second half and pushed its lead past 30 points.

"We had a lot of kids make shots," Notre Dame coach John Snyder said. "A lot of people we are the one star, but we have a lot of kids who can make shots."

Ella Trinkaus finished with a game-high 35 points, including 21 in the first half, and Erin Trinkaus matched her season- and career-highs with 20. Maggie Trinkaus, the eldest of the three sisters and the team's second-leading scorer, went without a point in the win.

"Erin's a very special kid," Snyder said. "People think she's kind of the third wheel, and they shouldn't. When she plays the way she did tonight, we're hard to beat."

Alexis Kress, a junior who scored her 1,000th point earlier this month the night before Ella Trinkaus hit the same milestone, led Little Falls with 22 points while Izzo added 12.

"These kids just made it into sectional play last year," said coach Pam Munger whose Little Falls roster includes only one senior, Olivia Brand. "They played a great season in our (Center State Conference) division. They came here with a great record playing a tough school.

"Getting this far was not a disappointment. We've got a little further to go."

In Wednesday's opener, Marcellus trailed No. 2 General Brown (17-6) by basket at halftime but held the Lions to six points in the third quarter and took the lead. Cece Powell scored half of her game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter and shot five-for-eight at the line when General Brown started fouling.

Gabby Voss hit four three-pointers and added 12 points for Marcellus while Madelyn Ferris led General Brown with 14 points.

Notre Dame won its last sectional title in 2014 on the way to winning a state Class B championship.

Ella Trinkaus and Powell, the teams' respective thousand-point sophomores, each scored seven points as eighth-graders when the Jugglers and Mustangs met in Marcellus in the 2022 playoffs. Maggie Trinkaus had nine points and five rebounds in that loss for Notre Dame.'

The Jugglers' 2023 season also ended in the quarterfinals with a loss to Cortland.

"We worked really hard," Erin Trinkaus said."We've pushed ourselves this year."

The games in Rome started an hour earlier than originally scheduled out of travel concerns for strong winds, dropping temperatures and snow in the night's forecast. Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool won Class AAA playoff games to set up championship contests for both boys and girls, and the Sackets Harbor boys defeated LaFargeville in Class D. Sackets Harbor's opponent will be determined Thursday; the other semifinal between No. 3 New York Mills and No. 2 Faith Heritage of Syracuse was postponed and rescheduled at Cazenovia High School.

This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Notre Dame beats Little Falls, advances an Section 3 girls basketball