Irons strikes from deep in Ursuline victory

Senior Alyssa Irons made five 3-pointers and finished with 19 points as Ursuline downed Hodgson 55-37 in the DIAA Girls Basketball Tournament quarterfinals.

NEWARK – The shots weren’t falling for Alyssa Irons before the game.

But when they started to count, they started to fall.

The senior dropped three 3-pointers in the first 2:41 of the game, and finished with five 3s and 19 points as Ursuline cruised to a 55-37 victory over Hodgson on Saturday night in the quarterfinals of the DIAA Girls Basketball Tournament at the Bob Carpenter Center.

“A lot of shots I took in warmup were off,” Irons said. “I guess the more shots I made, the more my confidence went up. I just had to keep shooting, and my team did a really good job of getting me the ball.”

The top-seeded Raiders (17-5), the defending state champions, will meet fourth-seeded Concord in the semifinals at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Bob.

Ursuline got off to screaming start, as Irons splashed a 3 from the right corner just 11 seconds after tipoff. Then Maggie Connolly hit another long ball, and Irons dropped in two more from the left corner.

“Everyone on our team is capable of shooting,” Irons said. “It’s just a matter of who’s on.”

Motivated by Irons’ display, Connolly hit two more 3s before the first quarter ended as the Raiders raced to a 20-8 lead.

“Definitely, seeing your teammates succeed makes you want to succeed, too,” Connolly said. “… We really play off of each other, and each other’s intensity.”

Ursuline stretched the margin to 24-8 before the eighth-seeded Silver Eagles (17-5) started chipping away. Hodgson outscored the Raiders 12-8 over the rest of the half to pull within 32-20.

“Their quickness was unbelievable,” Ursuline coach John Noonan said. “They’re really aggressive, they attack the basket, and they’re talented kids. They played really, really hard.”

But Ursuline’s 3-pointers were too much. Irons hit one from the top of the key two minutes into the second half, then added another from NBA range for a 40-22 lead.

Connolly scored nine, Kailyn Kampert added eight and Olivia Mason had seven points and five rebounds for the Raiders. Hodgson got 13 points from Kayla Braxton-Young, 11 from Quiara Mayes and 10 from Ja-naiah Perkins-Jackson.

Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ