ND girls post win against Pirates

Notre Dame junior Jane Morrill was impressed with the way her team shot the ball from 3-point range against Perryville on Thursday night.

The Bulldogs had five 3-pointers in the first half alone to build a 28-point halftime lead. Senior Alex Fowler had three 3-pointers in the first half and four total.

"I walked in the locker room and I said, 'Fowler, if it wasn't for you ...,'" Morrill said. "She's helping us clear it out. Whenever she shoots and makes them, everybody knows to start guarding [her]. It's pretty sweet because then it opens up for me and [Meghan] Dohogne [inside]."

Notre Dame shot 45.6 percent from the field -- 6 of 19 3-pointers -- against the Pirates to cruise to a 69-26 win at Notre Dame Regional High School.

The Bulldogs improved to 4-1. Perryville dropped to 0-1.

Notre Dame's John Unterreiner drives between Sikeston's Michael Porter, left, and Darryl Howard during the fourth quarter.

Morrill led all scorers with 22 points and collected 16 rebounds.

Morrill was able to find open looks near the basket because of the outside shooting by Fowler, who netted 16 points, and sophomore Allyson Bradshaw, who had a 3-pointer among her 13 points.

"One thing that we really talked about is that so many teams focus on Jane," Notre Dame coach Renee Peters said. "In order to take the pressure off her, we need outside shooting. And the girls know that, and we're really working hard to step that up."

Notre Dame led 20-7 after the first quarter. Bradshaw scored five of her team's first seven points and Fowler hit two consecutive 3-pointers to build the early lead.

"We shot really well from the 3s today," Bradshaw said. "Jane got a lot of the put backs, and that helped a lot. We had a lot of good drives and a lot of good finishes. We weren't shooting well the first game, but this game we really stepped it up. With [Emily] Brumitt [coming] back, that will help. Because she's our main shooter."

Notre Dame was without Brumitt, its best 3-point shooter. Peters did not want to comment on the reason Brumitt did not play, but she said the senior also would miss the next three games.

"I was very happy with the overall shooting," Peters said. "We've been working on the shooting a lot in practice. And Allyson Bradshaw is stepping up big for us. ... With our lineup as it is -- with our shooter out for awhile -- we all knew we had to step up a little bit."

Notre Dame led 40-12 at halftime after holding Perryville to just five second-quarter points. The Bulldogs held Perryville to only three points in the third.

"I knew it would be tough coming down here," Perryville coach Vicki Lohmann said. "They've got five girls out there who can score. Even with Brumitt not playing, I know that they've got a tremendous amount of ability. I told them it would be tough. I just wanted to make it respectable. I don't necessarily know if the game was respectable. I need someone to step up and score. I lost a lot of scoring from last year. I've got a pretty good set of guards. They [Notre Dame defense] just seemed to take us out of the game."

Morrill was impressed with the way Bradshaw played and glad her team is off to a fast start.

"She's stepping up and doing as good as she can, which is pretty good right now," Morrill said. "She's helping us out a lot."

@z_agate_HSbasketball_linescore:Perryville753 11 -- 26

Notre Dame2020 15 14 -- 69

@z_agate_no tab_no indnt_bld ld:Perryville (26) -- Alicia Kueker 8, Makenzie Schirmer 2, Emily Hanquist 8, Natalie Bauwens 6, Samantha Amberger 2. FG 9, FT 6-11, F 17. (3-pointers: Kueker 2)

Notre Dame (69) -- Katherine Blasiney 5, Nicole Blattel 6, Lacy Boeller 3, Allyson Bradshaw 13, Meghan Dohogne 4, Alex Fowler 16, Jane Morrill 22. FG 26-57, FT 11-17, F 17. (3-pointers: Fowler 4, Bradshaw 1, Boeller 1.)