Notre Dame boys basketball team shoots past Hazelwood West

The Notre Dame boys basketball team features a fairly potent offense.

Notre Dame becomes especially dangerous when the Bulldogs' high-intensity pressure defense is at its best.

That's what happened during Saturday's 17th annual Tiger Shootout at Central High School. The Bulldogs ran away from Hazelwood West 67-54.

"We just tried to put a lot of intensity into our press on defense," Notre Dame senior guard Nathan Meystedt said. "It was a really solid game, one of our better defensive efforts."

The matchup of relatively small but quick squads saw the Bulldogs (9-5) lead by 25 points in the fourth quarter before the Wildcats (7-7) from suburban St. Louis made the final score a bit more respectable.

"It's one of the best defensive efforts we've had all year," said Notre Dame coach Kevin Roberts, whose squad has won six of its last seven games. "We just guarded them from start to finish. Today our best offense was our defense."

Notre Dame forced upward of 20 turnovers. The Bulldogs turned many of those into uncontested fast-break layups. They also converted numerous runouts after grabbing rebounds.

"We created a lot of runouts off turnovers and we did a really good job of rebounding," Meystedt said.

Meystedt said senior guard Jonathan Lynch "did a great job getting the ball up and down the floor."

Meystedt was a major beneficiary of Notre Dame's fast-break success. He scored at least a dozen of his game-high 26 points off layups when he was well ahead of the pack. Meystedt also knocked down three 3-pointers.

"My teammates did a great job of finding me," said Meystedt, who averages better than 20 points per game.

Senior forwards Joe Siebert and Cody Heisserer both added 13 points for the Bulldogs.

Hazelwood West led 5-2 early, and the squads were tied 10-10 late in the first quarter.

Meystedt hit a 3-pointer and a layup over the final 80 seconds of the period to put Notre Dame up 15-10.

It was 34-21 at halftime and 53-36 after three quarters before the Bulldogs went up by 25 points in the final period.

"They're a good team. They're going to beat a lot of people," Roberts said about the Wildcats. "It's nice to get a 'W' here after we lost to Parkway South last year."

Senior guard DeTravis Ross paced the Wildcats with 15 points.

Sikeston defeated Imagine Prep 69-62 in the day's final game.

Hazelwood West 10 11 15 18 -- 54

Notre Dame 15 19 19 14 -- 67

HAZELWOOD WEST (54) -- DeTravis Ross 15, Will Donegan 2, Derrian Johnson 5, Devon Carter 2, Donald Burton 12, Fred Forrest 6, Derrius Pate 2, Mark Dowell 2, Benny Davis 4, Reuben Green 4. FG 24, FT 2-4, F 13. (3-pointers: Ross 1, Johnson 1, Forrest 2. Fouled out: none)

NOTRE DAME (67) -- Demonte Farmer 2, Jordan Reddin 2, Nathan Meystedt 26, Patrick Williamson 2, Quinn Poythress 3, Joe Siebert 13, Cody Heisserer 13, Ryan Hale 6. FG 26, FT 11-16, F 11. (3-pointers: Meystedt 3, Poythress 1. Fouled out: none)