Nevaeh Hawkins’ parents may had an inkling that he’d be comfortable above the rim when they named him.
“It’s heaven backward,” Hawkins explained when asked how to pronounce his first name.
The 6-7 senior blocked five shots in No. 22 St. Patrick’s 43-38 rivalry win against Notre Dame on Friday in Niles.
“[Hawkins] is a big-time factor down there,” Notre Dame coach Kevin Clancy said. “Against other teams, those are probably bunny layups. We talked to our guys a lot about using shot fakes but he cleaned up a lot of mess down there when we had some opportunities.”
Both teams struggled offensively. The Shamrocks (5-0, 1-0 East Suburban Catholic) missed their first nine shots and didn’t score for the first 12 minutes. Notre Dame (3-3, 0-1) wasn’t much better. Hawkins’ rim-protecting ability stifled the Dons’ inside strength of 6-7 seniors Brady Sehlhorst and Reid Rosseland.
“[Notre Dame] definitely became hesitant after I blocked a few,” Hawkins said. “They were pump-faking and then passing the ball out.”
Hawkins scored nine points. Senior Anthony Favia led St. Patrick with 11 points and EJ Breland added eight points and six rebounds.
“It’s a big relief having [Hawkins] down there,” Breland said. “When I mess up, I know I’m alright because I have him cleaning up. Nothing gets past him. Those blocks give us energy and get us up and puts fear in the offense.”
The Shamrocks shot 14 of 34 and Notre Dame was 14 of 45 from the field.
“Naismith may have regretted inventing the game if he watched that tonight,” St. Patrick coach Mike Bailey said.
The Shamrocks led 11-10 at halftime. Both teams’ offenses picked up a bit in the second half. St. Patrick took control with a 10-2 burst early in the fourth quarter.
St. Patrick’s Nevaeh Hawkins (30) blocks a shot by Notre Dame’s Brady Sehlhorst (4).
Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times
“There are going to be games like that where we struggle offensively,” Breland said. “But we relied on our defense and kept stacking stops. We didn’t let missing shots ruin that side of the game. We weren’t fragile, stayed tough, and pulled it out at the end.”
St. Patrick escaped with a hard-fought rivalry win on the road when it didn’t play its best. The Shamrocks started the season well overall and expect to get 6-7 junior RJ McPartlin back from an injury in January.
“We are a work in progress but when we get RJ back and start to jell I think by state tournament time we will be pretty good,” Bailey said.
Sehlhorst led Notre Dame with 16 points and six rebounds. Senior Vincent Schell added nine for the Shamrocks.
Notre Dame played Simeon tough earlier in the week, losing 71-62. Clancy has seen several positives from his young team through the first six games.
“We are playing really hard,” Clancy said. “We are pretty inexperienced and it is early in the year. We don’t like losing this, it is a big rivalry game. But we competed all the way through and guarded well enough to win. But we just didn’t make many shots until late and that hurt us.”