Notre Dame claims third place in SEMO Conference Tournament

~ The Bulldogs held a big edge at the free-throw line in Friday's win.

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Notre Dame's aggressive play Friday in the third-place game of the SEMO Conference Tournament led to a free throw attempt edge of 43 to 11, and it ultimately led to an 88-81 win over Jackson.

The third-seeded Bulldogs hit 27 of 43 free throw attempts.

In the second half, Notre Dame (5-1) attempted 24 free throws, with 18 coming in the fourth quarter. Ryan Willen went 6-for-6 from the line, Austin Greer was 7-for-8 and Ty Williams hit eight of 12.

"That's one of our strengths," Notre Dame coach Paul Hale said. "But we have to have better free throw shooting than tonight. We missed some shots that could have iced the game earlier, but we hung in there."

Jackson, seeded fourth, finished with a far better percentage than the Bulldogs, hitting 82 percent of their attempts, but finished just 9-for-11 from the line. The Indians finished with 26 fouls to Notre Dame's 15.

"Them getting to the free throw line and us not getting to the free throw line was obviously a big part of the game," Jackson coach Darrin Scott said. "When they can play that aggressive without fouling, that make them hard to score on."

Unlike last year, when the Bulldogs were stifling opponents with their pressure defense and creating points off turnovers, so far through six games the Bulldogs have been an offensive team. Notre Dame has scored at least 80 points in all but one game.

"We have to get better defensively," Hale said. "We know we're going to go to work in practice. We've kind of gotten away from having defensive pressure, but we'll get back to that."

Senior guard Abe Dirnberger ran the show for the Bulldogs on Friday, penetrating at will. Dirnberger finished with 17 points and frequently carried the ball up the court. All of Dirnberger's drives also helped open things down low for 6-foot-7 forward Ryan Willen and 6-0 sophomore Austin Greer.

Despite giving up size down low to Jackson's front-court tandem of 6-6 Hunter Grantham and 6-5 Antonio Garritano, Greer came up with 19 points. Willen also had 19 points.

"He had a really good second half," Hale said of Greer. "He took it to them. We talked a little bit today. He's a good player. We need to have more out of him. He has to decide he's one of our offensive threats."

Despite the disparity at the line, Jackson was able to stay within striking distance with the help of Garritano, Grantham and Jake Leet. Garritano finished with 16 points after a quiet game in the semifinals. Against Sikeston on Thursday, Garritano finished with just seven points.

"We challenged him to respond and didn't start him tonight," Scott said. "He responded well. I thought he played his best game of the week."

Grantham added 18 points from the post. Leet, who missed much of the third quarter with foul trouble, had a team-high 21 points. In the fourth quarter, Leet hit a pair of 3-pointers to help keep Jackson in the game.

A 3-pointer from Williams gave the Bulldogs a 71-62 lead to start the fourth quarter, but Jackson responded with an 8-1 run to cut the lead to 72-69. Another run by the Bulldogs pushed the lead back to 81-73 before Jackson made its final push.

Back-to-back 3-pointers from Caleb Guilliams and Leet cut the lead to 81-79 with 2:40 remaining. Jackson managed just one more basket in the game, and Notre Dame hit five-of-eight free throws over the final 1:35 to finish off the game.

"We missed a lot of free throws, but we took it to them," Hale said. "When you take it to them, you'll shoot a lot of free throws."

Williams led all scorers with 24 points for the Bulldogs. He had 16 of those points in the second half, including 10 in the fourth quarter.

"Ty's a good player," Hale said. "He's had to play a whole lot of minutes along with Ryan [Willen] and Abe [Dirnberger]. Abe had a great game defensively."

Matt Lang added nine points for Jackson, and Guilliams had eight. The Indians played without 6-6 guard Spencer Goodman once again.

Notre Dame 88, Jackson 81

Jackson 17 22 23 19 -- 81

Notre Dame 15 29 24 20 -- 88

JACKSON (81) -- Jake Leet 21, Hunter Grantham 18, Antonio Garritano 16, Matt Lang 9, Caleb Guilliams 8, Marcus Harris 7. FG 33, FT 9-11, F 26 (3-pointers: Leet 3, Guilliams 2, Lang 1. Fouled out: Grantham)

NOTRE DAME (88) -- Ty Williams 24, Austin Greer 19, Ryan Willen 19, Abe Dirnberger 17, Joseph Tolbert 3, John Unterreiner 3, Mark Himmelberg 3. FG 28, FT 27-43, F 15 (3-pointers: Williams 2, Dirnberger 1, Willen 1, Himmelberg 1. Fouled out: none)

Central 29, Poplar Bluff 23, OT

Central 8 2 10 3 6 -- 29

Poplar Bluff 6 0 7 10 0 -- 23

CENTRAL (29) -- Kerry Walker 18, George Hamilton 4, Jajuan Bell 5, Derek Walker 2. FG 10, FT 7-11, F 5 (3-pointers: K. Walker 2. Fouled out: none).

POPLAR BLUFF (23) -- T.J. Stonecipher 9, Rusty Bryant 8, Phillip Brown 6. FG 10, FT 3-5, F 11 (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none).