Charleston’s speed, physicality too much for Notre Dame

The Charleston Blue Jays (3-0) were simply too fast and too physical for Notre Dame (0-1) to keep up as the Bulldogs fell 66-52 on Friday night. Notre Dame junior Kolton Johnson led the Bulldogs with 21 points and fellow junior Brett Dohogne followed close behind with 17 points of his own.

Charleston took home the wire-to-wire victory as Notre Dame never led. The Blue Jays began the game on a 6-0 run and led 14-5 after the first quarter. A 12-7 Charleston run to begin the second forced the Bulldogs to call timeout, after which they figured their defense out but the offense continued to struggle. Charleston led 28-16 at halftime.

Notre Dame head coach Jeremy Brinkmeyer said his team simply did not play well enough to win.

Notre Dame junior Kolton Johnson puts up a three-point shot against Charleston on Friday, Dec. 1 at Notre Dame Regional High School in Cape Girardeau.Photo courtesy of Chase Lawson

“Not good enough, it’s as simple as that. I'm not talking about the result of the scoreboard, our effort wasn't good enough, our physicality wasn't good enough, it’s not what we've been preaching and not what's expected,” Brinkmeyer said. “But luckily it's game one, it's just one game and sometimes a coach’s best friend is a good failure. We'll watch it on film and get to work Sunday in practice and try to fix it.”

Notre Dame came out on a 12-8 run to start the third quarter and forced Charleston to call a timeout. The Blue Jays then went into their patented full-court-press defense and never allowed the Bulldogs to get back within 10 points as the game ended 66-52. Brinkmeyer said they got away from their game plan and that Charleston capitalized on their game plan.

“We didn't stay put to our game plan of trying to get the ball inside and we didn't try to work through those guys,” Brinkmeyer said. “Even though it was a fast-paced game, they[Charleston]were looking to go inside and attack and continued to attack us. We just have to continue to get better at defending that.”

Notre Dame and Charleston will compete in the SEMO Conference Tournament in Sikeston next week. The Bulldogs will play Cape Central in round 1 on Monday at 8:30 p.m.