Jackson defense big in rout of Notre Dame

The Jackson Indians boys basketball knocked off rivals Notre Dame Bulldogs 63-46 on Tuesday at Notre Dame Regional High School. Defensive effort and sharp first-half shooting led the Indians to their fifth SEMO Conference win and fifth straight over the Bulldogs.

Jackson (12-5, 4-0 SEMO Conference) began the game with three straight three-pointers, two from Kole Deck and the other from Blayne Harris. The Indians ended the quarter 5-7 from beyond the arc and on defense held the Bulldogs to just nine points, half of those being free throws. Jackson got whatever they wanted on the offensive end and held a 22-9 lead headed to the second.

Notre Dame (7-10, 1-5 SEMO Conference) began the second on a 4-0 run, but Jackson quickly answered with a 12-2 run and forced the Bulldogs into a timeout. After the timeout, Notre Dame held the Indians to five points but still trailed 39-19 at the half.

Jackson head coach Kory Thoma said his team was ready for a Notre Dame team who has been improving thus far.

“Our kids we're ready to go tonight. We know Notre Dame has been improving game by game and we had to come to their house., really go games improving,” Thoma said. “They're extremely well coached, Brinkmeyer does an amazing job with those kids. I knew it was going to be a dog fight and fortunately, we hit some shots early and often.”

Hit shots they did as Harris, Deck and Judd Thoma all scored in double figures with 24, 14 and 10, respectively. In the second half, the Indians went cold from three but got good minutes inside with Judd Thoma and the bigs off the bench, Braden Thompson and Lee Ivy. Thoma was complementary to his guys off the bench.

“They were really good, both Thompson and Ivy were sparkplugs in that quarter. They do a lot of good things, I see it in practice,” Thoma said. “It’s nice to see them do good things in practice and continue to do those good things on the court.”

Jackson held a 53-31 lead after the third quarter, cold from the outside but scoring inside whenever they wanted while also swarming the Bulldogs on defense. Notre Dame’s Kolton Johnson who averages 15 points per game was held to just four from the defense of Harris, although Brett Dohogne led the Bulldogs with 20.

“We kept Kolton Johnson to just four points in the game and Blayne did a really good job on him. I know Dohogne had 20 but it got tough inside, it was a very physical game and my kids stepped up to the plate,” Thoma said.

Notre Dame had a much better fourth quarter, scoring the most in the final frame than in the first three quarters but the deficit was simply too large as the Indians cruised to the victory.

Jackson gets a week off before they travel to Charleston to take on the Blue Jays next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. while Notre Dame will head west to compete in the Nixa Invitational Tournament this weekend.