LAWRENCEVILLE – It has been a bad week for Colonial Valley Conference winning streaks but a good week for the Notre Dame High boys basketball team. The two coincided Thursday night as the Irish grinded out a 37-34 victory over Hopewell Valley, snapping the Bulldogs winning streak at nine. Two nights earlier, Lawrence ended West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s winning streak at 10. It was the second straight win for ND this week after suffering through five straight losses. “Huge,” ND coach Tim Stevens said. “No losing streak is a good thing. As a coach you always say ‘We gotta do this, we gotta do that.’ We gotta take it game by game. To get the win on Tuesday and back it up with a win against a really good Hopewell team is huge for us.” “This feels great,” senior forward Charlie Schurr said. “Coming off a couple losses, we were locked in, we were feeling it from the start. We came together as a team and pulled through; did what we had to do.” Notre Dame (7-6) never trailed as it used a patient first-quarter offense to take a 10-0 lead and spent the rest of the night holding off the Bulldogs (10-3), who have lost all three of their games by three points. Hopewell tied it twice, at 17-17 late in the first half and at 32-32 with just over a minute left. Notre Dame answered both times. “Hopewell’s a good team, they battled back,” Schurr said. “We’ve been talking about staying focused and we did that tonight.” Schurr, who missed all of December with injury, collected five rebounds and had five of his nine points down the stretch. After Notre Dame (7-6) took a nine-point lead after three quarters, Hopewell cut it to 28-24 and appeared to be getting on a run. But Schurr answered with a three-point play with 5:47 remaining. Paced by Ethan Rich, who had six of his 10 points in the fourth quarter, Hopewell used an 8-2 spurt to tie it at 32-32 with under two minutes remaining. Will Foley, who had a game-high 16, hit two foul shots with 1:20 left to put Hopewell up two. Josh Gatete then stole a pass and made one of two for a 35-32 Irish lead. Jude Berman answered with a driving lay-up to cut it to 35-34 with 30 seconds left. The Bulldogs fouled Schurr with 18.3 remaining and he calmly hit both foul shots for a three-point lead. With fouls to give, ND fouled twice to run time off the clock. The Bulldogs missed two 3-pointers in the final 11 seconds as Notre Dame survived. Stevens was impressed with the contributions from numerous players, especially Schurr at crunch time. “That’s being a senior,” the coach said. “Everybody knows how much we were missing him early in the season. He’s still not back to 100 percent but he’s still giving everything he possibly can every single night. When we need something, yeah, I’m gonna turn to him. He’s built my trust over our four-year relationship. I’m proud he hit those foul shots late.” Schurr likes the responsibility. “I’ve been here for four years,” he said. “I’ve been around Notre Dame a little longer. I kind of recognize these moments. I lead when I have to, and I trust in my teammates.” It was a frustrating night for Hopewell, as Notre Dame got a putback at the buzzer by Wyatt Moore to end the first quarter, a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer by Foley to give ND a 20-17 lead, and a jumper by Foley with two seconds left in the third quarter. The Bulldogs have been victimized at the buzzer several times this year, most notably on a three-quarters court game-winner by WW-P North. “We’ve definitely gotta clean that up moving forward,” coach Matt Stein said. Stevens felt those shots lifted his squad. “The game is momentum,” he said. “Every game whether one team wins by a lot or not, there’s momentum shifts. In a tight game like this those momentum shifts are huge. For us to be able to execute late in the quarter in those scenarios, it was just a huge lift. We needed confidence and that’s what we got.” Notre Dame allowed its least amount of points this season and held Hopewell to its lowest output with an effective press and strong halfcourt defense. The Bulldogs shot 15-for-40 with 11 turnovers, and whenever they seemed ready to go on a run, a turnover or missed shot derailed things. “You have to give credit to them,” said Stein, whose own team gave a strong defensive effort as well. “Those mistakes happen because of what they do. At times we weren’t running our offense with a purpose and that was them getting us uncomfortable in situations. Notre Dame did a great job tonight slowing it down, running their offense and holding us to 34.” Stevens felt the game wasn’t played at the pace his team would have liked but that “we found a way to grind it out. Our kids showed a lot of patience they didn’t show earlier in the season; working for better shots and letting them come to us a little bit. “Defense has been our Achilles heel, we’ve been harping on it. We’re starting to get moving on the defensive end. It’s not just one guy, it’s team defense, and tonight we played it for the first time for four quarters.” Schurr has certainly bought into that premise. “Great team defense,” he said. “Not just one guy pressuring the ball, but all five guys staying engaged. That’s what we’ve gotta do to win. Hopewell’s a good team, we held them to 34. That’s pretty good.” Good enough to get consecutive wins for the first time in 2025. HOPEWELL (34) Desai 2-1-5, Briehler 3-1-7, Berman 2-1-6, Yadamiec 0-0-0, Rich 5-0-10, Mantuano 3-0-6. Totals: 15-3-34. NOTRE DAME (37) Foley 4-5-16, Moore 1-1-3, Gatete 1-2-4, Schurr 3-3-9, Rancan 2-0-5, Kamera 0-0-0, Gojaniuk 0-0-0. Totals: 11-11-37 Hopewell (10-3) 4 13 2 15 – 34 Notre Dame (7-6) 12 8 8 9 – 37 3-point goals: Berman (HV). Foley 3, Rancan (ND_).