Johnson shatters Bulldog 3-point record, working hard to take next step

It says a lot about a player to break a career record for such a historic program as Notre Dame as just a junior – but Kolton Johnson took that challenge in stride.

With still a large portion of his third season in blue and white remaining, Johnson officially shattered the Bulldogs’ all-time 3-point record on Thursday night in Notre Dame’s 55-47 win at Dexter.

Johnson torched the Bearcats for 20 points, including a whopping six triples in the win to clear the Bulldogs’ previous record of 147 made 3-pointers by 2017 graduate Blake Bauwens.

“I coached Bauwens as an assistant coach during his time here, and I knew how fantastic of a shooter and scorer he was,” Bulldogs head coach Jeremy Brinkmeyer began. “So when I learned earlier in the year that this had a possibility to be broken, it was hard to believe.

“It speaks volumes to not only how good Bauwens was, but also how great of a player Kolton is becoming and how great of a shooter he's becoming.

“To break his record, like I’ve said, I've seen Blake fill it up for a long time. To see Kolton break it already as a junior is quite impressive.”

Johnson, in the span of just 32 minutes, improved his career total from 142 to 148 as he blitzed past Bauwens’ career record set seven years ago.

Over the past three years, he’s developed into something of a flamethrower for Notre Dame. Every night, teams center their strategy around limiting him from the 3-point line – and he’s still hitting consistently.

That’s something that’s made life easier for Brinkmeyer in his first year at the helm of the Bulldogs’ varsity program.

Yet, one of the first changes that Brinkmeyer made with Johnson was to emphasize his development off the 3-point line.

It’s a change that’s morphed him into one of the top guards in Southeast Missouri as just a junior.

“I've challenged Kolton all year to be the player I see that he could be,” Brinkmeyer said. “He's more than just a shooter.

“I think, for a long time, he thought that was all he was or all that he contributed to the team. But he’s starting to grow into his understanding that he can affect the game in different ways than just shooting.

“He's really starting to kind of grow into that role.”

In Johnson’s freshman and sophomore seasons, the Bulldogs finished noticeably below the .500 mark on the season.

But over the past few weeks, Notre Dame has garnered victories over Troy-Buchanan, Dexter and Meridian out of Illinois in the Charleston Sixth Man Shootout.

While Johnson has become a phenomenal leader on the hardwood, receiving notoriety as one of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament’s top players the past two years, there’s one more big step Brinkmeyer wants the young scorer to take.

It’s the off-the-floor leadership that Notre Dame will need to get back to get back to the winning ways of yore, and Brinkmeyer believes that Johnson has that potential.

“What we've been challenging him with is trying to be a vocal leader,” Brinkmeyer said. “Honestly, that's something that, as a team and a whole, we’ve been trying to challenge somebody to step up and take and take over.

“We have a saying that we use a lot. Good teams are led by the coach, but great teams are led by the players.”