Notre Dame hoops execute late in road W at Dexter

DEXTER – The Notre Dame boy’s basketball squad only has one senior on its roster, yet in the final minutes of its SEMO Conference varsity boy’s basketball game against Dexter at the Bearcat Event Center on Thursday, the Bulldogs played with poise and effort that belied their youth.

Notre Dame (9-12, 2-5 SEMO Conference) crashed the glass and hit its free throws late in the contest to pull away from the Bearcats (5-14, 0-6) for a 55-47 victory.

“Yes and no,” first-year Bulldog coach Jeremy Brinkmeyer said of his team’s strong execution, “because we hadn’t been doing great at that. But we’ve been working on it in practice.”

With 3:24 remaining, Dexter senior center Ethan Zebelin converted an “and one” to tie the game at 47, which because of the Bulldogs’ tenacity at the defensive end, ultimately proved to be the final highlight for the hosts.

The Bulldogs buried a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession, which was followed by junior Kolton Johnson sinking a pair of free throws with 2:41 remaining, to put his team ahead 52-47.

Johnson had quite the evening.

He scored a game-high 20 points, and in so doing, he hit six 3-pointers. The final one of those makes snapped the Bulldog program record for career 3-pointers made, as it was his 148th. The previous mark was held by Blake Bauwens (147 makes).

The Notre Dame defense got stops on every Dexter offensive possession for the rest of the night, but it was the Bulldogs’ effort on the offensive glass, that was so frustrating to the Bearcats.

With two minutes remaining, the Dexter defense got stops twice, only to allow a Notre Dame player to swoop in and keep his team’s possession alive with an offensive board.

“It was back and forth all the way to the end,” fifth-year Dexter coach Chad Allen said, “but we just gave up too many offensive rebounds there at the end. A lot of those, we just didn’t pursue it very hard. They were pursuing them hard.”

Bulldogs Logan Landewee and Johnson each sank a combined three free throws in the final 34 seconds to seal the win while Dexter continued to misfire at their offensive end of play.

“That is something that we actually really focused on (in practice) a lot was rebounding and game time situations, wanting the ball in our hands,” Brinkmeyer said. “It was a good test tonight for us to put that into action.”

The victory was the second by Notre Dame over Dexter after beating the Bearcats 60-46 in the SEMO Conference Tournament in early December.

Johnson was helped offensively by junior Brett Dohogne, who scored 14 points while Trenton Schumacker (nine points) also contributed.

Dexter was led by junior shooter Tucker Temples, who scored 15 points on five 3-pointers.

Bearcat sophomore shooter Gibson Booker (nine points) and Zebelin (eight) also contributed.

The Bulldogs will face Mounds Meridian (Ill.) Saturday at 11:30 a.m. in the 6th Man Shootout at Charleston High School.

Mounds Meridian is ranked 13th in Class 1 in the latest Illinois high school basketball poll.

Dexter will visit Advance (2-16) today at 7:30 p.m.