Braves breeze past Bulldogs

Notre Dame accomplished its goal of forcing Scott County Central to play in the half court.

The Bulldogs' problem was that the Braves proved adept at it.

The Braves leaned on a balanced attack that saw five players score at least 11 points in their 86-55 victory over the host Bulldogs on Tuesday.

SCC star Otto Porter scored a game-high 26 points, but it was his teammates who buried Notre Dame.

"He's going to get his, but you have to limit those other guys, and those guys made shots for them," Notre Dame coach Kevin Roberts said about Porter. "You have to give them credit. They made a lot of shots for them. If we make shots early, it's a different ballgame. We got shots, we just didn't make them."

Notre Dame's Nathan Meystedt drives against Scott County Central's Stewart Johnson during the first quarter Tuesday at Notre Dame.

The Braves (14-2) almost used Porter as a decoy at times. They would pass to the 6-foot-9 senior and the Notre Dame defense quickly collapsed on him. But Porter responded by firing a pass to a cutting teammate for an easy bucket.

"That was just kind of the plan because we already knew they were going to put two or three on me," Porter said. "We just practiced that in practice. Just wanted to get everyone involved. So they would just move to the open spot and I would be forced to hit them."

Dominique Porter and Trey Johnson both added 15 points to bolster the Braves' offense.

"I think we just got to play our role," Dominique Porter said. "If Bubba [Otto Porter] ain't able to get open and get his shots, we just got to step up and score more than we usually do. Usually, most of the time, we revolve all our plays around Bubba so he can get an open shot because people usually double-team him. We just got to step up and help Bubba out."

SCC coach Kenyon Wright feels confident his Braves can make the defense pay if it only focuses on Otto Porter, whose teammates shot 51 percent from the field Tuesday.

Scott County Central's Stewart Johnson comes up with the ball after Notre Dame's Jordan Reddin hits the floor during the third quarter Tuesday at Notre Dame. (Fred Lynch)

"Them other guys can put the ball in the basket," Wright said. "They know their role. They know their role isn't to go out there and try to get 50 points a game and they don't go out there and just jack it up. Whenever the opportunity arises, they do what they got to do. They're being smart about that, and I hope we can keep that together."

SCC loves to use its pressure defense to generate turnovers and convert them into layups. But Notre Dame seemed unfazed by the pressure for most of the game. The Bulldogs (10-8) only turned over the ball 15 times, and the Braves also committed 15 turnovers.

"We didn't turn it over," Roberts said. "We got shots. We got a lot of shots. We just didn't make them."

Wright pointed out that turnovers aren't the only positive to come out of the press.

"People don't understand that sometimes when you press, it's to wear people out," Wright said. "That's a big part of it, whether you get steals out of it or not. It helps when you can, but when you don't, you don't."

The game was supposed to match two of the region's premier post players, but that battle didn't materialize. While SCC's Otto Porter played the entire game, Notre Dame 6-7 senior Jacob Tolbert missed the contest.

"He had borderline pneumonia," Roberts said about Tolbert. "He had a 104-degree fever and he hasn't had any fluids or anything to eat in two days, so he's just really, really sick. He's really upset. He's such a competitor and this is a big stage for him to go up against one of the best players and to showcase his talent."

Otto Porter, who finished with 17 rebounds and three assists, said he didn't learn until just before the game that Tolbert wouldn't play.

"It would have been nice to play against him," Porter said.

The Bulldogs were forced to attack from long range without their big man inside.

"We're not going to score a lot inside with Porter in there and [6-1 Cody] Heisserer our tallest guy playing," Roberts said. "We're tremendous shooters. We are good shooters and we're fundamental. We've got to penetrate and find open shots and we did. We just didn't make them."

Notre Dame went 6 of 25 (24 percent) from 3-point range and 19 of 54 (35 percent) overall from the field.

SCC 20 22 27 17 -- 86

Notre Dame 7 15 22 11 -- 55

SCOTT COUNTY CENTRAL (86) -- Trey Johnson 15, Dominique Porter 15, Otto Porter 26, Stewart Johnson 13, Reggie Woodson 11, LaMarcus Steward 6. FG 36, FT 12-17, F 14. (3-pointers: Johnson 1, D. Porter 1. Fouled out: none)

NOTRE DAME (55) -- Cody DeBrock 8, Cody Heisserer 2, Joseph Siebert 3, Nathan Meystedt 14, Jonathan Lynch 7, Alex Beussink 17, Jordan Reddin 4. FG 19, FT 11-14, F 18. (3-pointers: DeBrock 2, Siebert 1, Beussink 3. Fouled out: DeBrock, Siebert)