Notre Dame falls to Sikeston in third-place game of Kelso Supply tourney

Plagued by 13 turnovers and a 15-point deficit in the first quarter, the Notre Dame girls basketball team had no one to turn to against Sikeston on Monday night.

Fifth-seeded Notre Dame turned the ball over 37 times before being dealt a rare 56-34 loss to third-seeded Sikeston in the third-place game of the Kelso Supply Holiday Classic at the Show Me Center.

"Yes, turnovers, but we were just outplayed. Sikeston did a good job and they were ready to play," said Notre Dame coach Renee Peters, who saw her team fall to 2-6. "I'm not going to keep saying we're young because that's getting old. We've just got to play team ball. Working the ball inside, catching the ball, shooting the ball, everything was tough tonight.

"We haven't gotten in the habit of winning games yet and until we do and the girls get a little successful, everything is going to be kind of foreign to them. We're trying to get some games where we can win, where we can get that feeling of togetherness and it hasn't come quickly for us yet, and unfortunately we're making more mistakes than doing the things that we should be doing."

Sikeston coach Matt Schonhoff said he told his players a quick start was necessary if they wanted to take down Notre Dame, a team they had not beaten since Schonhoff became coach five years ago.

Sikeston (4-2) responded to Schonhoff's advice by forcing Notre Dame to turn the ball over nine times in the first three minutes of the game, jumping out to an early 15-4 lead and never relinquishing the advantage.

"Our main focus was to come out and pressure from the start. The key for us tonight was our quick start. We got that start and we never let up," Schonhoff said. "We always pride ourselves on defense. Our defense has to start our offense. We're not a very good half-court offensive team. We're getting better, but our defense, that's our offense. ... This is a big thing for our program. I don't know if Sikeston's ever beat Notre Dame or if they did I don't know when it happened, but it's a very, very proud moment for our program."

Juniors Allie Ziegler and Cheyenne Sander scored Notre Dame's only four points in the first three minutes of the game, both on layups, while freshman Lexi Welter added four points to close out the first quarter.

Sikeston's Tyeshia Mitchell was a force in the paint, scoring eight points in the first, including three straight baskets off Notre Dame turnovers in a span of one minute. The junior finished with a game-high 12 points, eight of which came in the first half.

"She came out, set the tone really, really well," Schonhoff said. "We have good inside people and if we get the ball inside hopefully that opens our outside game. We have very good inside people. This is the best Tyeshia has played all year, but at the same time this is the best our team has played all year and we picked a great time to do it."

Sikeston sophomore Larissa McClellan put in a layup after a steal by junior Erica Peet to extend the lead to 23-8 as the buzzer sounded to end the opening quarter.

"Our girls were a little shell-shocked to start, and it showed," Peters said. "We were playing on our heels all night and it's tough to come back that way."

Notre Dame turned the ball over six more times in the second quarter and made just 3 of 10 shots (30 percent) from the field. Haylie Chapman scored her only points of the game when she hit a 3-pointer with 48 seconds to play in the half to cut Sikeston's lead to 31-17.

The sophomore scored a career-high 18 points in an opening-round win over Central. Peters said Chapman has since been battling the flu and had not picked up a ball since Thursday's 60-20 loss to top-seeded Saxony Lutheran.

"She had just came in today and touched the ball for the first time and she played the majority of the game," Peters said. "Against Saxony she was kind of quiet, only had a couple of points, and then tonight she just tried to do anything she could and she couldn't get anything. They shut us down."

Schonhoff said he told his players to key on Notre Dame's outside shooters, including Chapman.

"We knew that Hayli can shoot and we needed to have that constant pressure on her," Schonhoff said. "I think she hit one 3, which is terriffic defense, but we have our keys to our defense. Our girls are doing a really, really good job of keying on who we need to stop. It was the perfect team win for us."

Notre Dame scored the first five points of the second half, but was held to just 12 points for the remainder of the game.

Sikeston answered with a 10-2 run to close out the third, and outscored Notre Dame 11-10 in the final quarter.

Welter led the Bulldogs with 12 points, while Allie Ziegler added six points and Sam Brennan had four.

"We were outmatched a little bit, but just because we're young that doesn't mean you can't win. That doesn't mean you can't go after it," Peters said. "Sometimes when you're young you just find a way to do things and our girls kind of overthink things too much, and I've got to figure out a way to get them comfortable and get them playing together because we're better than what we've shown in the last two games."

Sikeston 23 10 12 11 -- 56

Notre Dame 8 9 7 10 -- 34

SIKESTON (56) -- Tyeshia Mitchell 12, Larissa McClellan 8, Miranda Harrison 8, Ariana Beard 7, Erica Peet 7, Kiera Steward 6, Alexis Boyd 4, Alana Basham 4. FG 21, FT 14-28, F 17 (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none.)

NOTRE DAME (34) -- Lexi Welter 10, Allie Ziegler 6, Sam Brennan 4, Hayli Chapman 3, Morgan Duschell 3, Olivia Jansen 2, Brooke Blankenship 2, Sydney Newell 2, Cheyenne Sander 2. FG 13, FT 7-12, F 15 (3-pointers: Chapman 1. Fouled out: none.)