Dohogne leads way as Notre Dame boys basketball breaks down Scott County Central in Christmas Tournament quarterfinal

Notre Dame boys basketball may have lost some key pieces from last year, but, for at least one more day, it will keep its chances of defending its Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament title alive.

The 2014 champs and No. 3 seed grabbed momentum after halftime and broke down No. 6 Scott County Central for a 75-63 victory Monday night in a championship quarterfinal at the Show Me Center.

After the Braves (5-5) took a one-point lead into the locker room midway through the game, the Bulldogs (5-4), rather than let momentum slip away, answered with a gut punch. Notre Dame came out of the break on a 12-2 run, pulling away to advance to the semifinals against No. 2 Cape Central.

"I thought our second quarter was not very good at all," Notre Dame coach Paul Unterreiner said, "but we made some adjustments in the second half and the boys bought into it. I thought we, for the most part, executed pretty well in the second half.

"We couldn't keep them in front of us [in the second quarter], so we talked about that press. It was digging down deep and guarding someone and keeping them in front of you."

The Bulldogs held SCC to just nine points in the third quarter.

"We just broke down," Scott County coach Matt Cline said. "We didn't take care of the ball, we stood around on offense and we stood around on defense. We needed to turn up our intensity level defensively and pressure the ball and we just kept laying back. We just stood around too much."

Notre Dame big man Dawson Dohogne paced his side with 21 points, going 10 of 10 from the field. Blake Bauwens added 15 points for the victors, including five 3-pointers. Ross Essner (12) and Winston Welter (10) also scored in double figures for the Bulldogs.

"Right now, it's teaching [Dohogne] to get after it every play," Unterreiner said. "If he can [do that] he can score 20 a night. He finished tonight. ... Our guards did a good job getting him the ball, and when you have guards hitting the 3 it opens up Dawson, and it does the same thing for our shooters when Dawson has a good night."

Jeffery Porter had 21 points for the Braves. Deantrell Beard posted 15 points for SCC, while Deven Blackmon had 13 and Gerald Sanders had 12.

Scott County Central's Deven Blackmon grabs a loose ball as Nortre Dame's Tanner Robert looks on during the first quarter in a quarterfinal of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament Monday, Dec. 28, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (FRED LYNCH)

The teams traded punches in the early going, with a one-point contest until Blake Bauwens hit a 3 with 2:32 left in the first quarter. Thirty seconds later he hit again from long range, and Dohogne converted an old-fashioned three-point play with the lay-in and a foul with 29 ticks left on the clock. When Essner hit a floater as time expired it gave Notre Dame a 19-12 advantage after eight minutes.

Scott County Central battled back in the second, with Sanders knocking down a 3 off an assist from Blackmon to pull the Braves within a possession less than two minutes into the frame. Four minutes later Porter hit a pair of free throws to tie things at 29, and the game remained tight up until halftime, when Porter took a steal coast to coast for a lay-in with 22 seconds left in the second quarter. SCC took a 35-34 lead into halftime.

But a Bauwens free throw knotted the game 20 just seconds into the third quarter, and a rebound on a missed free throw set up a basket by Essner for a 37-35 Bulldog lead.

Notre Dame never looked back, as Bauwens hit a 3 from the right side a minute later and the third seed began to pull away. When Bauwens hit another triple at the 3:33 mark, it pushed Notre Dame's advantage to 10.

Dohogne scored three baskets in the period's final minute to make the gap 13 points going into the final quarter, spinning off a defender in the post and laying the ball in to push the proceedings to 57-44.

The fourth quarter was more of the same, as Notre Dame continued to look to easy buckets under the hoop.

"They had a lot of success down low," Cline said. "We were out of position. We were supposed to keep our butt to the baseline and be able to see behind when they had that little backscreen, [but] some of the stuff we went over yesterday we didn't run very well today."

The Braves will face Scott City -- the seventh seed -- in a fifth-place semifinal Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

Notre Dame challenges the Tigers at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Scott County 12 23 9 19 -- 63

Notre Dame 19 15 23 18 -- 75

SCOTT COUNTY CENTRAL (63) -- Brody Ditto 2, Deven Blackmon 13, Deantrell Beard 15, Gerald Sanders 12, Jeffery Porter 21. FG 17, FT 14-23, F 12 (3-pointers: Sanders 3, Beard 2. Fouled out: None.)

NOTRE DAME (75) -- Blake Bauwens 15, Ross Essner 12, Tanner Robert 6, Winston Welter 10, Jake Edwards 7, Dawson Dohogne 21, Carson Ketcher 4. FG 28, FT 7-12, F 20 (3-pointers: Bauwens 4. Fouled out: None.)