NO. 2 BULLDOGS SHOW 'JAYS WHO'S NO. 1

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- Notre Dame is taking its No. 2 seed to sectionals.

The Bulldogs, feeling disrespected for earning the second seed despite a 5-0 record against district opponents, including a win over Charleston heading into the seeding meeting, proved that they indeed were the team to beat Friday night.

Notre Dame defeated top-seeded Charleston 57-49 to claim the Class 2A, District 2 championship.

"The No. 2 seed was definitely motivation," said Notre Dame forward Jonathan Ressel, who scored 15 points. "Coach stressed that to us. He told us to prove to the people who seeded us second that we could do it. We wanted to prove everybody wrong."

Notre Dame first-year coach Darrin Scott looked back at three things that eventually gave his 20-8 Bulldogs the tools necessary to win the title.

"One, was our loss to New Madrid," Scott said. "That game showed us what we needed to do as a team. Two, was our loss to Charleston. That game showed us what we needed to do to beat Charleston. And three was getting the second seed. That gave us all the motivation we needed."

Notre Dame's win wasn't a huge upset -- the two teams split in the regular season and Charleston (17-12) won by three points at Charleston the week before districts -- but Charleston was definitely the hottest team heading into postseason play.

"We picked a bad time to have a bad game," said Charleston coach Danny Farmer. "We feel bad we lost the game, but we don't feel bad about our overall season. We still accomplished some great things.

"We could've folded earlier in the season but we kept coming. We played well enough to win a tough conference."

The game was a hard-fought one with bodies spilling on to the floor almost as often as the ball fell into the basket.

And it was as close as it was competitive. Notre Dame wasn't able to pull away until the final minute.

With the game tied 47-47 with 2:02 left, Scott Wittenborn hit a pair of free throws. Kewain Gant answered with a putback, then, with 1:31 left, Ressel hit a fastbreak layup to give Notre Dame a 51-49 lead.

With :52 to go, Cory Beussink hit two free throws to put Notre Dame up 53-49 and 20 seconds later he put the game away with a fast break layup on a fullcourt pass from Mark Rubel, who finished with a game-high 20 points.

Charleston which was just four of 18 from the field in the fourth quarter was forced to foul from that point and Notre Dame won its first district championship since 1995.

In the second quarter, Rubel capped a 12-2 Notre Dame run with a layup to give the Bulldogs a 20-12 lead with 6:30 left in the half. But the Bluejays, taking advantage of five turnovers in the last four minutes of the second quarter, ended the first half on a 17-5 run -- which included a baseline leaner by Lezcano Dean at the buzzer -- and the two teams were knotted at 27 at halftime.

After Notre Dame scored the first basket in the second half, Dean went on a personal 5-0 run with two points coming on an acrobatic tip-in in which he fell to the floor. Dean's 3-pointer at the 5:50 mark put Charleston up 34-29. Dean scored 13 points -- including three 3-pointers -- in the third quarter and the Bluejays led 40-37 going into the final eight minutes of play.

Rubel nailed a 3-pointer in Notre Dame's first possession in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 40 and followed with another on the Bulldogs' next possession for a 43-40 lead, forcing Charleston to call timeout.

The two teams traded blows until the final minute of the game.

Dean ended up with a team-high 19 points and was the only Charleston player in double figures.