NEW BOSTON — Replacing a core group of talent from a team that made an OHSAA Division VII Regional Final appearance is not an easy task.
However, in a SOC I contest against the New Boston Glenwood Tigers’ boys basketball program, the 2025-26 version of the Notre Dame Titans’ boys basketball program certainly looks like a group that is ready to tackle that task head-on.
Matt Mader’s group put seven different players in the scoring column in the first half and 10 for the game overall, and despite gritty efforts from several players on New Boston Glenwood’s side, including Wyatt McNeil and Tyshoune Henderson among others, Notre Dame used an opening half where it allowed just two field goals over the first 12 minutes of the contest and three over the entire first half en route to collecting a 69-32 victory over New Boston Friday evening at Glenwood High School.
Between an offense that had six different players score five or more points and a defense that held New Boston to nine field goals for the game, it’s certainly a safe assumption to say that Mader was pleased with his group.
“New Boston is a tough place to play, and it’s a young group that hadn’t been on the road in a conference game,” Mader said. “I thought that we handled it really well. I told those guys, ‘We’ll have some off-nights offensively, but defensively, we shouldn’t have an off-night.’ We came out focused, determined, showed toughness and grit and really sat down and guarded. We came to play, and I’m just so proud of them.”
From start to finish, Notre Dame proved to be locked in as the Titans made their first two attempts from the floor and scored each of the contest’s first six points before New Boston scored to make it 6-2 with 4:07 to play in the opening quarter.
The Titans then went on another strong stretch of play from that point until the 4:08 mark of the second quarter, going on a 14-2 run to take a 20-4 lead before Henderson’s bucket with 4:26 to play in the second quarter helped get New Boston’s offense going.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen a team guard from the first quarter to the fourth quarter with the same type of energy and toughness that we had on Friday,” Mader said. “Hat’s off to those guys. They were really dialed in on the gameplan and what we were wanting to do. We knew that we had to stop (Wyatt) McNeil and (Tyshoune) Henderson. Those guys are really good offensively and they bought into it. I’m proud of how hard they played. I’m just really proud of them.”
While Notre Dame’s defense was clicking, its offense also enjoyed a strong outing as well.
Garrett Barbarits, who finished as the game’s high scorer with 19 points, went 6-of-8 from the free throw line in the first half — setting the tone early with a relentless style of play at the rim alongside Bryce McGraw and Jaxon Stombock — while Archie West was excellent throughout the game, knocking down back-to-back mid-range jumpers in the second quarter as part of a 10-point performance that included six tallies in the opening half of competition.
Barbarits believed that Notre Dame’s unselfishness, floor spacing and crisp action was critical in the result, and with 11 assists for Notre Dame on its 21 made baskets, the facts certainly back up his point.
“I believe, in that zone, we definitely moved the ball around and were able to get our guys great looks,” Barbarits said. “We got a lot of high post touches, and while we didn’t shoot it extremely well from the outside, we shot it well enough to open the high post up, which got our high-low game going and got our bigs and guards there scoring.”
West, who made both of his second quarter mid-range jumpers from the high post — just beyond the free throw line — agreed.
“It felt good to get going from mid-range,” West said. “I hadn’t been shooting the best the last couple of games from mid-range, but hitting those first two shots, I felt pretty good in not only my shot but how well we were all playing as a group. Our entire team did a great job finding the open guy, and that’s because we were patient in what we did and ran our sets effectively.”
Down by a 23-6 margin late in the second quarter, however, New Boston didn’t quit.
McNeil scored four points in a five-point stretch for the Tigers through his craftiness and effective scoring ability, cutting Notre Dame’s lead slightly to a 26-11 margin.
Then, following a three-point field goal by Tyler McQuithy just before the end of the first half, New Boston, who trailed by a 32-15 margin at halftime, then got six consecutive points from Henderson to begin the third quarter as New Boston closed Notre Dame’s advantage slightly to 14, 35-21, in the third frame.
The Tigers kept the deficit manageable throughout much of the third quarter, as the Titans’ lead hovered around the 14-to-16 point range throughout much of the third quarter — but Notre Dame responded with a third-quarter-ending 7-1 spurt, which was capped off with a bang when Sawyer Rutman’s 80-foot heave to end the third period banked off the glass and went straight through the hoop in a highlight-reel worthy bucket.
In all, five different Notre Dame players shot 45.5 percent or better from the field, and in addition to Barbarits adding in 10 of his game-high 19 in the second half, Luke Hamilton dropped in six of his nine in the final pair of stanzas in knocking down three separate treys in the game while Rutman scored all seven of his points in the second half to boot.
“Each night, it seems like a different guy is stepping up,” Mader said. “We love our balance. We love our team chemistry and we love our unselfishness. We like our makeup right now. As long as our guys continue to buy into each other and share the basketball, the sky’s the limit for this group.”
This, along with a plus-24 rebounding advantage for Notre Dame, all despite not having the services of featured big man Ethan Kingrey who is out due to injury, made the final result a formality.
“Going into this season, we believed that depth was going to be one of our strengths, and it turned out that was exactly right,” Mader said. “We overcame foul trouble because guys came off of the bench and did their job, knowing exactly what it takes and how to execute. Hat’s off to our guys, our depth and our overall team toughness. Our level of intensity and want-to was tremendous all game in every area.”
Notre Dame, who moved to 2-1 on the year and 1-0 in SOC I competition with the victory, turns its attention to a Monday evening nonconference matchup at Ashland (Ky.) Rose Hill Christian (0-3). The Titans also own a two-point victory over Coal Grove, 59-57, with its lone loss to OHSAA Division V Northwest by a respectable 10-point margin, 68-58.
“It feels really good, just knowing that we’re playing really well for it being the start of the season,” Barbarits said. “We’ve got the rest of the season to build off of that, so if we keep playing with that same intensity and energy on a game-by-game basis, we can keep building on that and perform well overall this season.”
“With five seniors gone, we all knew that we had to step up and take on a heavier role, and we’ve all done that,” West said. “We’ve all become better for it. I think we’re getting better each game.”
New Boston, who sits 1-3 and 0-1 in the SOC I, still has a quality win over OHSAA Division V River Valley in its season-opener. The Tigers were scheduled to play Raceland (Ky.) at Fairview High School Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. in a showcase that Fairview is hosting.
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