Notre Dame rebounds for third

~ Notre Dame sweated out a 64-60 victory over Charleston

Notre Dame advanced to the final night of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament, although the Bulldogs weren't playing in the game they had hoped.

But the second-seeded Bulldogs made the best of their disappointing situation, slipping past fourth-seeded Charleston 64-60 on Wednesday to finish third in the 16-team event.

The Bulldogs were denied a third straight trip to the tournament's championship game the previous night as sixth-seeded Central pulled off the semifinal-round upset.

"It was definitely good after last night's game when we didn't play the way we wanted to," junior forward Jacob Tolbert said.

Notre Dame's Jacob Tolbert scores against Charleston during their game Wednesday at the Show Me Center. (LAURA SIMON)

Said Notre Dame coach Kevin Roberts: "It's good to finish this tournament 3-1. Only one team is going to win every game. I thought we played real well."

Notre Dame, which beat Charleston in a tight affair for the second time this season, improved to 8-4. The Bluejays, third in last year's tournament, fell to 5-7.

"They're a good team, well coached," said Roberts, whose squad defeated Charleston 74-67 on Dec. 8 in the SEMO Conference tournament.

This one was even closer as Notre Dame had to survive a potential go-ahead 3-pointer by Charleston standout senior wing Deonte Jones with 7 seconds left.

Jones' shot, which came with Notre Dame ahead 62-60, was just off the mark. Tolbert iced the win by hitting two free throws with 2.5 seconds left.

"They're a really good team. Really quick," Tolbert said.

Tolbert led the Bulldogs offensively with 22 points. He also scored 22 points in each of Notre Dame's first two tournament games but had just 13 before fouling out against Central.

"I tried to stay out of foul trouble," Tolbert said. "I just tried to play hard and play good defense."

Senior guard Nick Koeppel added 17 points for Notre Dame, while senior forward Luciano Starling contributed 14 points along with solid board work.

"We definitely weren't as excited as last night, but we still managed to play hard," Koeppel said.

Roberts credited Koeppel for a strong game in the absence of fellow starting senior guard Liam Maher, who did not play after suffering an ankle injury against Central.

Senior Ke-Ke Kellum, normally among the Bulldogs' top reserves, started in place of Maher and also drew praise from Roberts.

"Nick had a lot of good penetration and hit some big shots," Roberts said. "And Ke-Ke played well. He played just about the whole game."

Jones paced Charleston with 24 points. Sophomore guard Greg Tucker and senior forward Fabreizio Wright added 13 points apiece.

Wednesday's game was close from start to finish as neither team held a double-digit lead.

The Bluejays twice were ahead by six points in the first half before the Bulldogs went up 33-31 at the break.

Notre Dame opened a pair of nine-point third-quarter leads, but could not shake the Bluejays.

Charleston, behind 50-46 entering the final period, forged a 52-52 tie with less than six minutes remaining.

Tolbert's layup with about five minutes left put Notre Dame back on top 54-52. The Bulldogs made it 62-55 with less than two minutes left.

Jones' 3-pointer at the 1:19 mark pulled Charleston within 62-60. That's the way things stood until the closing seconds, when Jones missed a 3-pointer and Tolbert finished the scoring with his two free throws.

"I thought we really executed our game plan, which was to get the ball inside to Jacob," Roberts said. "It was a good game for us."

Notre Dame 19 14 17 14 -- 64

Charleston 21 10 15 14 -- 60

NOTRE DAME (64) -- Nick Koeppel 17, Ke-Ke Kellum 2, Alex Carroll 3, Derek Landewee 2, Luciano Starling 14, Jacob Tolbert 22, Matt Helle 4. FG 24, FT 15-23, F 16. (3-pointers: Carroll 1. Fouled out: none)

CHARLESTON (60) -- Demonte Farmer 6, Ryan Parham 4, Greg Tucker 13, Deonte Jones 24, Fabreizio Wright 13. FG 20, FT 15-21, F 20. (3-pointers: Tucker 3, Jones 2. Fouled out: Wright)