St. James School was a charitable host as they took on Notre Dame Academy from Middlesburg, VA, in the opening game of the Twenty-Ninth edition of the St. James Invitational Tournament Thursday at St. James's Alumni Hall in the Hagerstown, MD, area.

Notre Dame , ranked as high a number one in the Washington Post's high school poll, came away with a 76-55 victory and moves on to the semifinals Friday evening.

NDA, located in Middlesburg, VA, boasts two Division I guards in Todd Galloway (Florida State) and Daevon Haskins (Rutgers). But Thursday Norte Dame was led by sophomore shooting guard Joe Posey who canned 21 points in the win. Galloway added 17 while Haskins was held to eight points. Posey and Galloway each hit a trio of three-pointers.

St. James was led by two seniors, 6-6, 230 pound power forward Jared Knotts with 22 points and 5-11, 150 pound point guard Brandon Monroe wiith 20. Knotts hit all but one of his 13 free throws, a strong showing from a muscular inside player. He and Monroe each hit two three-pointers.

Notre Dame had a 20-8 lead at the end of the first quarter and extended it to 38-22 at the halftime break. St. James was able to gain some momemtum in the third quarter and pulled to within 12 at 52-40 as the buzzer sounded.

Monroe hit one of two free throws with five seconds gone in the final stanza to bring the score to 52-41. But Notre Dame took over at the point with an 8-2 run as Posey dashed down the floor for an uncontested layup which brought the score to 58-43.

And then NDA really got their game in gear. Galloway hit his second three-pointer in a row at the 2:17 mark to put Notre Dame up, 73-49. Shortly afterwords, NDA coach Larry Cullinane brought most of the starters to the bench.

Notre Dame will face National Christian Academy, the Post's preseason number one team, at 8:30 pm Friday. St. James will meet up with Laurinburg Institute in the opening game at 4:00 pm.

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