No. 3 Notre Dame boys basketball upended by No. 6 Kennett in district quarterfinal

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Forget the seeding, the Notre Dame boys basketball team knew how tricky a matchup it would be with Kennett. The Bulldogs had already stumbled at the hands of the Indians on Jan. 15, 56-54. On Monday night the puzzle proved even more confounding, as No. 3 Notre Dame was upended by No. 6 Kennett 64-50 in a quarterfinal of the Class 4 District 1 tournament at Sikeston High School.

The Bulldogs (11-12) never led, allowing a subpar first half bring an end to their season as the Indians (11-12) used their athleticism and ball movement to maintain a comfortable cushion all night.

Kennett big man Jad Kenny dominated the proceedings with 23 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks, while guard Carlos Turner pitched in 10 points. Every Indian player who stepped on the floor scored.

"I think from the very beginning of the year … I knew they were extremely talented and played hard and were going to be pretty dang good," Notre Dame coach Paul Unterreiner said. "They had an up-and-down, roller-coaster season, but I thought tonight they were fantastic.

"I thought three weeks to a month ago we played some of our best basketball, and we just kind of went into a funk the last couple of weeks. We couldn't get on the same page, and unfortunately we weren't on the same page tonight. We didn't peak at the right time. Unfortunately, that's sports."

One of the biggest differences in the game was at the foul line, where Kennett was 16 of 24, while Notre Dame only made six trips to the charity stripe. The Indians finished 23 of 50 (46 percent) from the field.

"What I liked about who we were offensively is we got the ball to the lane. There wasn't a whole lot of settling for stuff away from the basket," Kennett coach Jim Vaughan said.

"We moved fairly well. We got the ball to people in the right spots. We made a lot of good decisions when we did catch it in spots on the floor -- in the high post or catching it low on the wing and being able to attack with a baseline drive. Really, I liked our aggressive mentality offensively."

The Bulldogs were 21 of 53 (39.6 percent) from the field and 4 of 18 from 3-point range.

Ross Essner paced Notre Dame with 13 points and 3-of-6 shooting from outside the arc, and Carson Ketcher added 12 points. Senior Blake Bauwens, who set multiple school 3-point records this season, was held to seven points and was 1 of 7 from long distance.

Notre Dame finished with more turnovers than field goals -- 24 compared to 21.

"I think credit [goes] to Coach Vaughan and his staff. They got their boys ready to play and that had a lot to do with why we struggled," said Unterreiner, who led the Bulldogs to a third-place finish in Class 4 last season, his first with the team. "We didn't shoot the ball real well and failed to establish our inside game. Our struggles on offense led to some miscommunication and struggles on defense."

A generally sloppy first half saw Notre Dame fall into an early hole thanks to missed shots and turnovers -- 13 before the break, to be exact.

The Indians leapt out to a five-point lead early on before an Essner 3-pointer pulled the Bulldogs within two, 7-5, at 3:43 of the first. But Kennett was unfazed and pushed its advantaged to 14-7 when Rantrell Caruthers got out on the break and layed the ball in with 18 seconds left in the quarter.

It was more of the same in the second, when Indian guard Jahaida Childress stole the ball at midcourt and took it in to double-up Notre Dame, 15-7, seconds into the quarter.

Essner drained another triple just over a minute into the period to draw the Bulldogs within four, but Kennett edged away again.

Kenny slammed the ball home on a putback for the Indians, and less than a minute later Edward Wilson hit a shot from long range to make things 25-17 at 4:18 of the second.

Kennett then closed the half on a 6-2 run, capped by a Kenny putback, to take a 33-22 lead into halftime.

The Indians slowly but surely expanded that gap in the third quarter, with Kenny scoring right out of the break before Carlos Turner hit a 3 at 5:08 of the third period to give Kennett a 41-28 lead. A minute and a half later the Indians pushed their advantage to the largest of the night -- 14 points -- when Ty'Reik Thomas drove to the hole and gave his team a 47-33 lead with 3:24 left in the third.

By the end of the quarter, Kennett sat on a 51-37 advantage over its higher-seeded counterpart.

"We defended them," Vaughan said. "We had a great idea of how we wanted to defend their offensive movement -- a lot of ball screen action. Probably 80 percent of the time we executed it well."

Winston Welter quickly scored a conventional three-point play for Notre Dame to get the final eight minutes started, and with 4 minutes left in the game he sparked a small 5-1 run for the Bulldogs, as Bauwens hit his first 3-pointer of the night before Tanner Robert layed the ball in 30 seconds later to get the deficit back to single digits, 59-50, with 1:53 left.

It was too little, too late, though, as Kennett hit its free throws down the stretch to dispatch the Bulldogs.

Kennett will take on second-seeded Cape Central (19-4) in a semifinal tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Sikeston High School.

Central has a 45-40 victory over the Indians under its belt, back on Feb. 8.

"That was a bitter loss for us because we played well enough to win through more than three and a half quarters," Vaughan said. "Our goal is just … we want to put 32 minutes together and finish a game."

Kennett 13 20 18 13 -- 64

Notre Dame 7 15 15 13 -- 50

KENNETT (64) -- Rantrell Caruthers 8, Carlos Turner 10, Patrick Maddox 3, Fred Gooden 6, Had Kenny 23, Jahaida Childress 6, Edward Wilson 5, Ty'Reik Thomas 3. FG 23-50, FT 16-24, F 10. (3-pointers: Turner, Wilson. Fouled out: None.)

NOTRE DAME (50) -- Blake Bauwens 7, Ross Essner 13, Winston Welter 7, Dawson Dohogne 3, Carson Ketcher 12, Tanner Robert 2, Andrew LeGrand 6. FG 21-53, FT 4-6, F 14. (3-pointers: Essner 3, Bauwens. Fouled out: None.)