'Dogs unleash Siebert

Notre Dame's Travis Siebert was frustrated after his first four games.

He couldn't get much going offensively, averaging about 10 points.

After an 11-point performance against Dexter, the junior guard asked his coach, Darrin Scott, "When are the shots going to start falling?"

The answer came Tuesday night when he scored a career-high 31 points to lead the Bulldogs past Cape Central 74-61 at Notre Dame High.

Siebert hit four of his seven 3-point attempts and scored 20 second-half points as the Bulldogs (3-2) turned an interesting game into a blowout with a couple of runs in the third and fourth quarters.

When asked if he thought he was capable of scoring 30 points, Siebert said, "Not every night. But when I get hot, I can."

His teammates got hot, too, particularly during a key stretch midway through the third quarter.

Central (1-4) had just taken its first lead of the game, 37-35, on a putback by Seville Bell with 7:27 left in the third quarter.

Notre Dame answered with a 10-0 run.

Central turned the ball over on seven straight possessions during that stretch while the Bulldogs hit four of their six shots.

"We really shot ourselves in the foot during that stretch," Cape Central coach Derek McCord said. "At times, our inexperience really showed."

In all, Notre Dame outscored Central 20-9 during the third quarter and led 55-42 going into the fourth quarter.

"I think we did a better job of not giving them the middle of the floor," Scott said. "We took away their penetration and their inexperience showed a little bit. When they lost some confidence, we gained some confidence and that's when we made a run."

Cory Beussink, who was a rebounding force in the paint, scored 13 points for Notre Dame.

Central got 15 points from Matt Cardin and Ryan Delph scored 14. Both Cardin and Delph fouled out.

Notre Dame led by eight points three different times in the first half, but couldn't put the Tigers away. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 9-1 advantage, but the Tigers scored the next eight points to tie the game at nine with 2:20 left in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs led just 35-33 at halftime.

The game was fast-paced for the most part and there were 50 turnovers total, including 26 by the Tigers.

"It was just an ugly ballgame because neither team handled the ball well," McCord said. "The difference was that they shot the ball better than we did."

McCord was disappointed with the number of fouls his team committed.

The Bulldogs went to the free throw line 37 times and made 18.

"You can't defend free throws," McCord said. "We need to move our feet."

Notre Dame, which held a decided height advantage over Central, outrebounded the Tigers just 33-29.