Notre Dame dominates Oran in fifth-place game

Notre Dame's defense played a waiting game Thursday.

The Bulldogs sat back and waited for Oran to make a mistake. That's when they pounced.

The strategy helped create 32 Eagles turnovers in the fifth-place game at the Southeast Missourian Christmas tournament.

Notre Dame rode the easy baskets off turnovers and hot shooting to a 63-36 victory over Oran.

"We had been pressuring at first, but we kind of sagged back and let them make the bad passes," Notre Dame junior Nathan Meystedt said. "Just anticipating. We weren't trying to do too much. We played kind of conservative but still played for that steal on a pass."

Oran coach Joe Shoemaker said he plans to address immediately the turnover issue in practice.

"No. 1, you have to start practicing at that speed, which we've got in a comfort zone of not going that hard," Shoemaker said. "The other thing is just relaxing. It got in our heads tonight. You could see several of our players, it got in their head. They just quit relaxing and playing basketball and tried to do too many things."

The teams traded the lead four times in the opening quarter and Notre Dame clung to a 14-12 lead after the opening eight minutes.

Oran shot 66 percent (6 of 9) from the field in the first quarter to stick with the Bulldogs.

But the wheels fell off the Oran offense in the second quarter. The Eagles struggled to get shots, helping the Bulldogs open the second quarter on a 13-2 run.

"We let them make mistakes," Notre Dame coach Kevin Roberts said. "We were in better position. We didn't force the issue. We wanted to play fundamental defense, and with the pressure we do put on people, they will give it up eventually."

Meystedt paced the Bulldogs with 16 points in the first half. He only missed one of his eight attempts from the field in the opening half.

"We had a game plan of getting the ball up the floor fast and my teammates did a good job of getting it up," he said. "I got easy points in the beginning and that kind of helped me get into a rhythm and knock down a couple jump shots."

Oran only managed to shoot 32 percent (11 of 34) from the floor over the final three quarters. When combined with the Eagles' 24 turnovers over that same span, Notre Dame quickly pulled away and earned a running clock in the fourth quarter.

"We just couldn't get it down to our half-court set to do anything," Shoemaker said. "When teams have sped us up so far, we seem to turn the basketball over a lot."

Notre Dame senior standout Jacob Tolbert only scored nine points, but that proved a bright spot for the Bulldogs. Three Notre Dame players finished in double figures, led by Meystedt's game-high 20. Derek Landewee added 14 and Alex Beussink chipped in 11.

"Jacob is a big part of our offense," Landewee said. "When he's not getting the ball and easy layups, that means us guards have to step it up and take some pressure off him so they can't double- and triple-team him."

Roberts said: "To have three guys in double figures and not one of them is Jacob, that's really big. Now if we can just get everybody working together and Jacob putting his 25 and everybody having those numbers, we'll be tough to beat."