Alemany Switches Defenses, Defeats Notre Dame, 59-41

Kate Beckler scored 27 points Saturday night and Alemany defeated Notre Dame, 59-41, setting up an important Mission League girls’ basketball game on Tuesday.

Alemany (10-4, 2-0 in league play) will be playing for first place in the Mission League at Harvard-Westlake (16-3, 2-0), ranked No. 6 in the region by The Times.

The Indians switched from a press to a man-to-man defense against Notre Dame in the second quarter, which sparked a 10-0 run and led to a 28-14 halftime lead.

Beckler scored seven second-quarter points for Alemany.

“I think the kids are starting to step up a little bit now,” said Coach Melissa Hearlihy of Alemany, whose team has won three consecutive games, including an 83-23 victory over Flintridge Sacred Heart earlier in the week.

“We’re starting to balance out a little.”

In other girls’ games:

El Toro 81, North Hollywood 61--The Huskies led, 54-50, two minutes into the fourth quarter before the Chargers went on a 19-0 run to win an intersectional game at El Toro.

Tashean Thomas scored 32 points, including six three-pointers for North Hollywood (10-5), which could not fend off the fourth-quarter charge by El Toro (15-1).

“I can’t explain it,” Coach Rich Allen of North Hollywood said. “They hit a couple of shots, we turned the ball over a couple of times and we just kind of stopped playing for a couple of minutes. It was a good game, but it got away from us during that two-minute stretch.”

Markia Derby had 14 points and 13 rebounds for North Hollywood.

Guli Mendiola scored 32 points and her sister, Gio, added 27 for El Toro.

Paraclete 53, L.A. Baptist 31--Christine Lambert had 35 points, 16 rebounds and four blocked shots for the Spirits in an Alpha League opener at L.A. Baptist.

Erika Lambert contributed 10 points, seven assists, seven steals and three blocked shots for Paraclete (9-6, 1-0), which took down 43 rebounds.

Kelly Feirfeil scored 15 points for the Knights.

Village Christian 67, Big Bear 38--Jenielee Greslie, a 5-foot-10 guard, had 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Crusaders in a nonleague victory at Big Bear.

Village Christian (8-7) held the Bears to one field goal during the first 16 minutes and led, 37-8, at halftime.

Greslie, who scored 75 points in three games during the week, had 12 rebounds.

Cheryl Yaussi added 14 points and Karri Keeble had 13 points, eight assists and six steals for the Crusaders.

Desert Christian 52, Big Pine 37--Meko Winbush scored 17 points and Janet Esber added 15 for the Knights (7-3, 2-1) in a Desert Mountain League victory at Desert Christian.

Winbush scored seven first-quarter points and Esber had six to help stake Desert Christian (7-3, 2-1) to a 21-8 lead.

BOYS

Cornerstone Christian 56, Dunn 41--Andrew Tasker scored 22 points and the Eagles won a Condor League game at Cornerstone Christian.

Josh Miller and Phil Hahn each had 11 rebounds for Cornerstone Christian.