LUCASVILLE — It’s already difficult to stop a great player.
But when that player and team is additionally motivated by what they feel is a slight, then that can be a recipe for a performance that inspires the entire team, especially in win-or-go-home contests.
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Junior guard Jaysa Bryant, having enjoyed a terrific individual campaign to this point in the 2025-26 season, added to that effort with a double-double, posting 20 points and 11 rebounds to go along with five steals.
Her teammates responded as well.
Kennedy Lyon buried four three-point field goals and the Notre Dame Titans’ girls basketball program held the Clay Panthers’ girls basketball program to 21 points through three quarters of action before holding on for a 45-39 win in a OHSAA Division VII District Semifinal contest that was played at Valley High School in Lucasville Wednesday evening.
For Notre Dame head coach Jason Smith, the performance spoke volumes about the Lady Titans’ attention to detail during the affair as a whole.
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“It was a great effort by our girls,” Smith said. “I knew it would be a nailbiter because both games this season have been decided by a total of five points. I knew we had a shot to beat them. Honestly, everything was clicking. We were hitting shots early and we were on fire. Clay played great in the fourth quarter and I knew they would make a run on us because they are a good basketball team. We got a little tight at the end because we didn’t need to shoot. We could’ve been more aggressive at the end, but I’ll take the blame for that. I’m so proud of our girls for their performance (on Wednesday). They believed, they worked hard all week with a gameplan knowing that we could beat our rival, and they came ready to play. It says a lot about them.”
Lyon, an efficient sharpshooter who has been big from beyond the arc all season for Notre Dame, picked an excellent time to have what was perhaps the best performance of her career.
Draining three three-pointers right out of the gate in the opening quarter of action, Lyon helped get the Lady Titans off to a roaring start as Notre Dame took an 11-3 advantage before an eye could be batted.
“Kennedy has a great shot,” Smith said. “You leave her open and she’s going to drain the three. She played outstanding. Anytime Kennedy is open, she has the green light. She always has the green light to shoot the ball, and that’s what she does. She’s in the game for her offense. I tell her to shoot everything that is an open look. We need shooters to stretch the floor, because every game, teams want to do a box-and-one on Jaysa (Bryant) or put two on her. That’s just what they do. We have kids that step up, and this is the best time of the year to step up.”
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Bryant added in gritty play around Lyon as well, notching all five of her steals in the opening quarter as well, while Notre Dame junior Bella Rush drew a charge as Notre Dame built its early lead.
Clay senior Sophia Craft added in six of the Lady Panthers’ nine points in the opening quarter to help Clay draw within 13-9 at the end of the opening frame of action.
Bryant then helped Notre Dame re-establish a high single-digit lead in the second frame.
Scoring seven points in the second stanza alone, Bryant added in a crafty low-post finish with a pair of free throws, then, with time winding down, lofted a 25-footer falling away near the out-of-bounds line on the far end of the court at the halftime buzzer that dropped, giving Notre Dame a 22-13 lead at the halftime break.
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“Jaysa’s a special player,” Smith said. “We go as Jaysa goes. I love that kid to death. She will do whatever we tell her to do. She’s just a great teammate, a great kid. She’s believing in her teammates and kids are stepping up and hitting shots when they get a chance. The Second-Team Ohio High School Basketball Coaches District 14 honors certainly added a little bit of fuel to her fire on (Wednesday), not only for her but for our entire team.”
The buzzer-beating bucket by Bryant then proceeded to fuel a terrific third quarter for the Lady Titans, who proceeded to outscore Clay 17-8 as Notre Dame dialed up the intensity further on both ends of the court.
Alongside Bryant and Lyon, Alayla Soard and Sophie Phillips each hit three-point field goals in the third frame of play, while Lyon added in her fourth three-point field goal in the same stanza.
In addition to Bryant, Lyon, Phillips and Soard, Audrey Bach also scored in the quarter, with Bach finishing off the 17-point frame with a bucket just prior to the third quarter horn after a press-breaker saw Bella Rush find Bach wide open in the lane for a layup.
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That scoring output, along with terrific man-to-man defense led by the play of Soard, Bryant, Rush and Phillips — the former of the quartet taking on the responsibility of guarding Clay junior guard Emma Emnett — allowed Notre Dame to take as large as a 37-17 advantage before settling for a 39-21 lead at the end of the third quarter.
“We’ve been a 1-3-1 team all season long, but coming into this game, I felt like we needed to do something different,” Smith said. “We’ve really worked on not getting back cut and really getting under the screens so we can contest the shots. We did do a great job. Alayla (Soard) did a phenomenal job on (Emma) Emnett. She’s a great player, and if you leave her open, she’s going to shoot it. You can’t have your hands down on them. One thing I was proud of with every single girl was the way that we communicated. Every single player was out there talking defensively. That’s what it takes to win. We weren’t doing that early in the year, and now, the girls are getting into the details of what it takes to play great defense. It’s truly exciting.”
Refusing to let the 18-point lead at the end of the third frame dampen their spirits, Clay answered back with a furious rally as Emnett scored seven straight Clay points to begin the fourth quarter, found Lady Panther Maddie Penix for a layup and added in a pair of free throws to help Clay trim Notre Dame’s lead down to single digits at 45-37.
Ava Demorest added in eight second-half points for the Lady Panthers as well, and got a key steal that led to a layup, helping Clay cut Notre Dame’s lead to a 45-39 margin with under 35 seconds to play. However, the Lady Panthers’ comeback ran dry on time, as Notre Dame sealed the victory with its play over the first three quarters of play.
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With the win, Notre Dame improved to 11-11 overall for the 2025-26 season and will play Green in a OHSAA Division VII District Championship contest that will be held on Saturday afternoon at 3:15 p.m. at Valley High School in Lucasville.
Clay finished its best season in 12 years at 17-7 overall, and loses just one senior, albeit a big piece, in Sophia Craft, to the 2026-27 version of the roster. Craft averaged 16 points and nine rebounds in 2025-26, became the eighth player to score 1,000 points in her career and finished as Clay’s all-time career rebounding leader with over 800 in her four years as a Lady Panther.
