Notre Dame may have lost three straight coming into Friday night, but the Green Knights have won of the best home-court advantages on its tiny court with a boisterous student section. That certainly helped as Notre Dame knocked off seventh-ranked Fairfield prep 68-60 in overtime.

But more importantly, Notre Dame did it with tough defense - holding Prep without a field goal for the final 7:16, including all of overtime. Prep settled for jump shots and was short on most of them. Notre Dame's nine-man rotation may have won the Jesuits down.

Also, the fact that Notre Dame won without one of its best players in David Rose (out two more weeks following knee surgery) says something about the players stepping up in his absence, like Javon Grey (18 points), Ahmad Ward (12, including layup at buzzer to send game to OT) and Joe Bongiorni (10).

Notre Dame grew up some Friday night. If the team can hang in behind Tom Doyle until Rose returns, the defending champs will stay in the race.

Still, I believe this is Prep's division to lose. The Jesuits have ND and Xavier at home and both Hamden and West Haven will struggle to reach the postseason. It's refreshing to hear first-year head coach Leo Redgate talk about the importance of March - the importance of playing your best basketball at season's end. It's something the New Haven coaches preach constantly.

Whether that will happen for Prep remains to be seen. The team is certainly a SCC contender but there are plenty of land mines along the way.