Notre Dame romps past Oak Ridge

Oak Ridge's upset chances were bolstered when Notre Dame's Jacob Tolbert got into early foul trouble.

But Tolbert's teammates picked up the slack well enough to give the Bulldogs a solid halftime lead.

Tolbert then finished off Oak Ridge with a third-quarter flurry as Notre Dame romped 72-38 in Monday night's quarterfinals of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament.

Second-seeded Notre Dame advanced to tonight's semifinal against sixth-seeded Central, while seventh-seeded Oak Ridge will face No. 3 Jackson in a fifth-place semifinal.

"It was a good game for us and it's nice to be in the semifinals," Notre Dame coach Kevin Roberts said.

Notre Dame's Jacob Tolbert takes a moment after being knocked down Monday night during the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament at the Show Me Center. (TIM BRUMITT)

Tolbert, a 6-foot-7 junior forward who already is being looked at by several Division I programs, picked up two fouls in the first 1 minute, 45 seconds.

Tolbert sat out most of the rest of the quarter, then played a few minutes of the second period before getting a third foul and heading to the bench.

"We're used to playing physical and they called some ticky-tack fouls," Tolbert said. "It kind of takes you out of your game. But everybody picked up the slack. I was really proud of them."

Tolbert scored just five first-half points, but Notre Dame (7-3) still led 28-17 at the intermission.

Alex Carroll and Dylan Essner, two backup senior forwards, helped make up for Tolbert's absence.

Notre Dame's Matt Helle defends Oak Ridge's Logan Mangels during Monday's game.

Carroll had two 3-pointers in the opening half, while Essner added a pair of inside baskets.

"We can always guard, but when Jacob got into foul trouble, that limited our offense," Roberts said. "Alex hit two big 3s and Dylan got four points inside. Those were big for us."

With Tolbert back on the court for the second half, Notre Dame began to roll.

After Oak Ridge (8-1) made it 28-19, Notre Dame reeled off 10 straight points, eight from Tolbert.

Tolbert hit consecutive 3-pointers, the second with 5:11 left to finish the run and open a 38-19 lead.

Another 3-pointer from Tolbert made it 41-21 and gave him 11 points in the quarter on his way to a game-high 22. Notre Dame led 49-27 entering the final period and continued to romp.

"I hadn't taken many shots because I hadn't hardly played," Tolbert said of his third-quarter performance. "I wanted to be aggressive and I wanted to get our intensity up."

Tolbert went up against familiar faces as he lives in the Oak Ridge district and attended Oak Ridge schools through seventh grade.

"Me and all them are pretty good friends," said Tolbert, who also scored 22 points in the first round against Scott City when he displayed his range by nailing six 3-pointers. "It's kind of tough to play against them 'cause they know what I do, but it was fun to play against them.

"They have a really good team. They have some really good players."

Oak Ridge also saw a key player get into early foul trouble as senior guard Garret Light had three fouls by late in the first quarter and played sparingly the rest of the half.

"He's one of their main scorers. It hurt them when he got into foul trouble," Notre Dame backup senior guard Ke-Ke Kellum said.

Oak Ridge's top two scorers combined for just 13 points as Light had eight and junior wing Brett Thomas five.

The Blue Jays had only eight field goals as 20 of their points came from the free-throw line.

"The key was defense," Kellum said. "We thought if we put pressure on them we'd be all right."

Despite seeing his team suffer its first loss, Oak Ridge coach Adam Stoneking was not discouraged. He believes having faced a much larger school with so many bigger players and more depth will do the Blue Jays plenty of good.

"I thought we played well. We just couldn't put the ball in the basket," Stoneking said. "It's the first time we've played against pressure like that. We knew it was coming.

"It's really good for our guys to go against a very good team like that. I told them if we could play a team like that every night, we would."

Oak Ridge 12 5 10 11 -- 38

Notre Dame 14 14 21 23 -- 72

OAK RIDGE (38) -- Caleb Elam 4, Lucas Rohde 4, Jacob Light 4, Garret Light 8, Brett Thomas 5, Logan Mangels 13. FG 8, FT 20-25, F 14. (3-pointers: Mangels 2. Fouled out: none)

NOTRE DAME (72) -- Nick Koeppel 8, Ke-Ke Kellum 2, Taylor Essner 9, Alex Carroll 6, Derek Landewee 2, Luciano Starling 8, Tanner Hiett 2, Jacob Tolbert 22, Matt Helle 2, Dylan Essner 8, Liam Maher 3. FG 26, FT 11-12, F 23. (3-pointers: T. Essner 3, Carroll 2, Tolbert 3, Maher 1. Fouled out: none)