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.

Fairfield Prep lost at Notre Dame-West Haven in overtime 68-60. Here's the recap with video of the shot that sent the game into OT.

Prep is ranked seventh in the Register Top 10 poll. No. 6 Crosby and No. 10 Ridgefield also fell from the ranks of the unbeatens Friday, each by two points to Holy Cross and Westhill, respectively. There will be a shakeup in the bottom portion of the top 10 when the next poll is released on Tuesday.

McDonald’s announced its nationwide list of seniors who have been nominated for the 2011 McDonald’s All American Games. Of the nearly 2,000 nominees announced, 12 boys players hail from Connecticut.
As nominees, they will be considered for one of the 48 available positions on the two teams which will compete in March. The following Connecticut high school basketball players were nominated:

· O'Shawn Bannister (Weaver)
· Rohan Brown (East Catholic)
· Zachary Chinouma (Marianapolis Prep)
· Maurice Harkless (South Kent)
· Zaid Hearst (Salisbury)
· Kevin Hoff (Career)
· Anthony Jernigan (South Kent)
· Andre King (Suffield Academy)
· Gerald McClease (Wilbur Cross)
· Tylon Smith (Kingswood-Oxford)
· Freddie Wilson (Hillhouse)
· Derrick Wilson (The Hotchkiss School)

All of Thursday's high school schedule has also been wiped out due to the blizzard. Here is the list:
Shoreline

North Branford at East Hampton, ppd. to Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Hyde at Old Saybrook, ppd. to Friday, 7 p.m.

Morgan at Portland, ppd. to Friday, 5 p.m.

Valley Regional at Cromwell, ppd., TBA

Haddam-Killingworth at Westbrook, ppd. to Friday, 7:30 p.m.

SCC Hammonasset

Foran at Law, ppd. to Friday, 5 p.m.

SCC Housatonic

Cheshire at Shelton, ppd. to Friday, 7 p.m.

SCC Oronoque

Hamden at North Haven, ppd. to Saturday, 3 p.m.

Hillhouse will be playing Paul Robeson out of Brooklyn (NY) in the 8TH ANNUAL BIG APPLE BASKETBALL INVITATIONAL on Monday at 11 a.m. at Baruch College in NYC  (corner of E. 24th Street & Lexington Ave.).

Hillhouse plays in the first of four games. St. Thomas More, featuring Andre Drummond, the former Capital Prep player and one of the top players in the entire region, will face Quality Education (NC).

Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students with an ID.

For the rest of Monday's schedule, and Saturday's schedule and additional information on the Invitational, visit the tournament website here

Career, Hillhouse, Wilbur Cross all won Tuesday - Cross by one, 58-57, over Xavier after Gerald McClease hit a pair of free throws with 7 seconds left - and Hyde won on Monday.

No need to visit the Elm City on Friday - Hillhouse, Hyde and Cross are off and Career plays East Haven. One game worth seeing in the Southern Connecticut Conference Friday night is Fairfield Prep at Notre Dame-West Haven. At first glance, this looks like a mismatch - Prep is undefeated and Notre Dame has lost three straight. But it is a desperate game for the Green Knights and they are at home.

This is one of the tougher games left on Prep's schedule. The seventh-ranked Jesuits don't play any of the New Haven schools or Lyman Hall, Hamden and West Haven are both struggling and Prep already won at Xavier. Prep is legit and will likely win the SCC Quinnipiac but we won't see how they match up against some of the best teams until the postseason.

It may be worth a trip to Waterbury. No. 5 Holy Cross plays at No. 8 Crosby in a battle of undefeated Naugatuck Valley League teams. Holy Cross features Mike Mallory and Crosby has Marvin Hampton leading the way. These are clearly the two best teams in what is a down year in the NVL.

The effort to go to the Palace to see this game at 7 p.m. would be worth it.

Here are tonight's games with some new start times due to the impending snowstorm:
SCC interdivision
Xavier at Wilbur Cross, 7 p.m.
Notre Dame-West Haven at Career, 7 p.m.
West Haven at Branford, 6 p.m.
Fairfield Prep at East Haven, 6 p.m.
Hillhouse at Sheehan, 6 p.m.
Law at Lyman Hall, 6 p.m.
Hand at Cheshire, 7 p.m.
Guilford at Shelton, 7 p.m.
Foran at Amity, 6:15 p.m.
NVL
Ansonia at Watertown, 7 p.m.
Derby at Seymour, 6 p.m.
SWC
Bunnell at Weston, 6 p.m.
Newtown at Stratford, 5:15 p.m.
Notre Dame-Fairfield at Brookfield, 5:30 p.m.
FCIAC
Bridgeport Central at St. Joseph, 7 p.m.
CSC
Platt Tech at Putnam, 4:30 p.m.