Jackson boys basketball team wins first SEMO Conference Tournament title

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The Jackson boy's basketball team was determined not to let Notre Dame overcome a deficit in the SEMO Conference tournament Friday night.

With two minutes, 20 seconds left in the third quarter the Bulldogs pulled within five points on a 3-pointer by Thomas Himmelberg from the top of the key.

"We just had to get stops at that point in time," Jackson senior Karson King said. "I don't know if coach called a timeout, we kind of had a dead ball, but we just got it together, said, 'We've got to get together. We can't let this team come back.' Notre Dame's notorious for that. We were up 19 last year, they were down 10 yesterday. We knew that they were going to come back, going to come push us, but we just had to stick it out."

King referenced Notre Dame's come-from-behind victory over the Indians in the first round of last year's SEMO Conference Tournament when the Bulldogs erased a 19-point halftime deficit to win as well as Notre Dame's one-point overtime victory over top-seeded Sikeston on Thursday.

The Indians scored the next four points after that and extended its lead over the final quarter to earn its first SEMO Conference tournament title with a 62-42 win over Notre Dame.

"We'll learn from this," Notre Dame coach Kevin Roberts said. "We've got to get better. This is a big, strong, physical team. We beat two really good teams this week, so we're definitely not hanging our heads this week. We're going to get better."

Jackson started the game with a 6-0 run over the first two minutes before Notre Dame answered with eight consecutive points. The Indians held a 15-12 lead after the first quarter.

Notre Dame nearly let the game get out of its grasp in the second quarter. The Bulldogs didn't score until a free throw by Jordan Williamson with 2:43 seconds left in the half.

Notre Dame's Thomas Himmelberg takes a shot against Jackson's Blake Reynolds during the first quarter of the championship game of the SEMO Conference Tournament Friday, Dec. 13, 2013 in Sikeston, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

"We weren't taking great shots," Roberts said. "With a team like [Jackson] you're one and done -- you're not getting an offensive rebound. We needed to take better shots. Our shot selection wasn't good."

Notre Dame was 2-of-12 shooting in that quarter and trailed by 16 points with about a minute left in the half. The Bulldogs cut it to 32-21 with the help of two 3-pointers by Chase Urhahn in the final minute. Urhahn scored 11 points -- all in the first half.

Jackson made just 5 of 15 field-goal attempts in the third quarter and Notre Dame was able to cut it the lead to as few as five points.

"The second half they took their press off, which was effective because I thought that kind of changed up our rhythm offensively," Jackson coach Darrin Scott said. "We were kind of in a flow attacking their press and we were really prepared to attack it, so when they changed it it kind of changed up, made us stand a lot I thought in that third quarter.

"Then finally end of the third quarter into the fourth quarter we kind of did a better job of moving, got a little motion and then I thought we were able to score a little bit."

It was the Bulldogs turn to go cold on offense next. Notre Dame shot 2 of 9 and didn't make a field goal in the final quarter until 2:32 left in the game.

Scott and King both noted that the team's defense has improved this season.

"We've always done a good job with helping, but this year we've done such a better job of recovering and getting back out on shooters and not giving up easy shots and then so rotating," Scott said. "When we can do that and then not give up second shots, then we can be pretty good defensively."

Jackson's Braden Wendel dunks against Notre Dame in the closing moments of the championship game of the SEMO Conference Tournament Friday, Dec. 13, 2013, in Sikeston, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

Jackson hit 19 of 24 free throws (79.2 percent) in the game, including eight in the last quarter to seal the victory.

"That was big," Scott said. "We say this wasn't close, but free throws don't win all the games, but they win all the close ones. If we don't shoot free throws well we make it a close game. Free throws are key and our kids do a good job of shooting free throws. They don't like to have to run or towel-push when they miss, so I guess that's working out for them."

Jackson improved to 3-0 with the victory while Notre Dame (2-1) suffered its first loss of the season.

"Hopefully our kids can get some confidence with where they're at right now -- they're a good basketball team," Scott said. "But we've got to get better. We've got to keep improving. That will be our big test as a team is to make sure we keep getting better in practice, keep working hard and stay focused on the things we need to concentrate on."