Fourth-quarter flurry sends Cape Central boys basketball over Notre Dame, into Christmas Tourney championship

The Cape Central boys basketball team found itself trailing Notre Dame by one heading into the fourth quarter of a semifinal of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament on Tuesday evening.

There was nothing too special about the huddle heading into the final eight minutes of the game, but the second-seeded Tigers buckled down on the defensive end and surged to a 68-50 victory at the Show Me Center.

"I don't think I said anything magical," Central coach Drew Church said. "I just think they kind of felt it, and we had kind of made some adjustments how we were guarding their ball screens and I think they just kind of figured out and picked it up. I told them, 'You've got eight minutes left and get down and tough,' and they responded.

Cape Central's Tevyn Wright-Hunt, left, and Al Young enjoy the final seconds of their 68-50 semifinal win over Notre Dame in the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015 at the Show Me Center. Young scored 31 points. (FRED LYNCH)

Central (6-4) took a 45-44 lead nine seconds into the fourth quarter with a pair of free throws by senior Al Young.

ND (5-5) quickly regained the lead on a basket by Andrew LeGrand, which was the Bulldogs' only field goal of the frame.

The Tigers went ahead for good with 7:01 remaining when junior Zyshon Mallory sank two free throws in a one-and-one.

Notre Dame's Ross Essner drives for a shot against Cape Central's Austin Parker during the second quarter of a semifinal in the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (FRED LYNCH)

Young converted a three-point play and then ND's Ross Essner brought the Bulldogs within 50-48 with two free throws with 5:14 left.

Young was fouled on the next possession, made the first free throw and after missing the second crashed the boards, made the putback and was fouled again. After an ND timeout with 5:03 left, he made the and-1 to push the Tigers' lead to 54-48.

"You've got to keep them from getting to the rim, and Al's hard to stop from getting to the rim," Bulldogs coach Paul Unterreiner said. "And if he gets to the rim you've got to make sure that if you foul him that he's not going to make the shot as well, and we didn't do a very good job of that. It's as simple as that."

Central's Austin Parker stole a pass into the post on the next possession and Jawone Newell scored on the fast break.

"That stuff doesn't really show up in the box score, but Zyshon had a great game defensively, Jawone had a great game defensively, Austin," Church said. "Just deflections, just simple things. I thought we got on the floor and got some 50-50 balls in the second half. Little things like that that are important to us I thought we did a good job of tonight."

Another Bulldog turnover led to Young converting a three-point play before Mallory came up with a steal and went coast to coast for a layup to make it 61-48.

Notre Dame's Ross Essner drives for a shot against Cape Central's Austin Parker during the second quarter of a semifinal in the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

"Our bigs started deflecting the ball and once our bigs started deflecting that means our guards have the full court to do what we want," Young said, "and once we get on fast breaks people just don't know, like our guards are hard to stop on fast breaks."

The Bulldogs made two more free throws the remainder of the game as they were outscored 25-6 in the decisive fourth.

"I just thought we stopped doing what was successful the first three quarters and we kind of got flustered and everything kind of snowballed after that," Unterreiner said. "We let one or two possessions lead to about 10 straight possessions that weren't very good, and good basketball teams have one bad possession and move on from it, and we'll get there."

Young finished with a game-high 31 points -- 16 came in the fourth quarter.

He was limited to two made free throws in the third and spent a few minutes on the bench to close out the quarter after his lip was busted open on a fast break.

He made one 3 in the second quarter and was 10 of 13 from the free-throw line.

"When Al is on, he's hard to stop," Church said, "and he only took one or two 3s tonight -- and if he's open, take them -- but he was attacking the rim, he was finding people and that really makes it easier for our other guys to get some things done when they're concentrating on Al."

Notre Dame held an 18-14 lead at the end of the first quarter and Central took a 32-31 lead into halftime. Bauwens had seven of his team-high 15 points in the first quarter. Essner finished with 12, including a pair of 3s in the second quarter. Dohogne had 10 and Ketcher added seven.

"I thought Dawson and Carson did a tremendous job inside for us tonight," Unterreiner said. "I thought they scrapped really well on the glass and I thought they were looking for each other great, had good post moves, and then when they started pulling in a little bit and helping out on that we kind of freaked out in the fourth quarter, didn't know what to do, and if that's on me -- we're going to work on what we've got to do to get better at it."

The Bulldogs, who won last year's tournament title, face fourth-seeded Charleston in the third-place game at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

"[I hope we learn] that we're a good basketball team, three-fourths of the time, and if we can continue to get better and better and eventually make that into four full quarters of basketball we can beat anybody we play," Unterreiner said. "I truly believe that we're good enough to beat any team we play on our schedule, but at the same time if we don't bring it for four quarters we can lose to anybody on our schedule, and that's something our guys have been slowly starting to understand and believe in is that we can be pretty good. If you would've told me at the beginning of the year we were going to be right here hanging with Cape Central and playing for third-place tomorrow, I don't know if I would've believed you. I thought we could be pretty good, but I thought we were going to take a while, and I think we're light years ahead of where I would've thought we would be. I'm pleased with where we are and we'll go back to work and get better."

The Tigers face No. 1 Jackson for the championship at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Central defeated Jackson 51-43 in the consolation final of the SEMO conference tournament on Dec. 11.

"They've improved a lot since the last time we played them," Church said. "And really us playing them [before] doesn't mean anything. I don't care who won, I don't care what happened. It'll be a dogfight. It always is. It'll be two teams battling, and we'll do the best we can."

Vote for the 2015 Southeast Missourian Tournament Fan MVP at semoball.com/mvpvote

Notre Dame 18 13 13 6 -- 50

Cape Central 14 18 11 25 -- 68

NOTRE DAME (50) -- Andrew LeGrand 3, Blake Bauwens 15, Ross Essner 12, Tanner Robert 2, Dane 1, Dawson Dohogne 10, Carson Ketcher 7. FG 16, FT 14-21, F 21. (3-pointers: Bauwens 2, Essner 2. Fouled out: Dohogne.)

CAPE CENTERAL (68) -- Zyshon Mallory 12, Al Young 31, Tevyn Wright-Hunt 5, Aubrey Carter 2, Jawone Newell 9, Austin Parker 5, Blake Harris 4. FG 23, FT 20-25, F 18. (3-pointers: Young, Wright-Hunt. Fouled out: Garrett Jackson.)