Notre Dame, Jackson to meet in SEMO Conference final

For the fifth-straight year the SEMO Conference Tournament championship game will feature the Notre Dame Bulldogs and the Jackson Indians.

The Bulldogs got to the championship by way of a 54-36 win over Kennett.

“I saw for the first time in a long time, program wise, our presence inside,” Bulldogs coach Kirk Boeller said. “I thought our interior offense was phenomenal.”

Perhaps the driving force in the success the Bulldogs had in the paint was Delta transfer Olivia Wagoner, who was making her Notre Dame debut.

Wagoner finished with a team-high 17 points on 6-for-10 shooting including 5-for-6 from the free throw line.

“She’s an athlete,” Boeller said. “She’s a tough kid, she’s talented and she’s got great hands around the basket. Her first game as a Bulldog and she did a phenomenal job.”

Wagoner’s presence alone makes life easier for her teammates and that was shown the second she was on the floor.

“It’s so good for our guards,” Boeller said. “We knocked down several threes tonight because they were so focused on guarding the inside. That addition has made everybody on the team that much better.”

Wagoner joining the Bulldogs gives Boeller the most depth he’s had “in a long time”.

“The school has been blessed with really good talent,” Boeller said. “Top to bottom we’re as deep as we’ve been in a long time.”

In the late game, it was the Jackson Indians coming away with a 42-26 win over the Dexter Bearcats to punch their ticket to the championship game.

“I thought our effort was good,” Jackson coach Angela Fulton said. “We came out and played with a lot of energy.”

Jackson fell behind early, trailing 7-6 after the first quarter, but the Indians put on a clinic defensively to lead 19-9 as the two teams entered the locker room at halftime.

“That’s what we’ve been preaching since the beginning of the year,” Fulton said. “Defense, defense, defense. Especially when you’re struggling to put the ball in the basket, the defense will give us transition points.”

Coming into this season the Indians knew what they would get out of Camryn Alsdorf on the offensive side, but defensively Alsdorf impressed in the win over Dexter with her ability to fly around and tip passes.

“She’s a phenomenal player,” Fulton said. “When she’s out there she’s been locked in on the defensive end.”

Jackson will meet the Bulldogs in the championship game at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 1 at New Madrid County Central High School.

“I think it’s going to be exciting,” Fulton said. “I think we’re going to see a lot of back-and-forth.”

Boeller feels like the Indians match up similarly with his team.

“They have some height that could give our bigs some problems,” Boeller said. “They have some guards that can shoot it well from outside so they match up pretty well with us.”