Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament: Notre Dame boys basketball team edges Jackson in title game

Notre Dame senior Quinn Poythress said he didn't look at the clock at all in the closing minutes of Tuesday night's Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament championship because that's what coach Paul Unterreiner had told his players.

The first-year coach wanted his players to just go out and just play in the final minutes at the Show Me Center rather than worry too much.

"Well, we did kind of panic a little bit," Poythress said. "I think they changed up their press a little bit and pressured us a little bit more, that got to us a little bit."

When Poythress finally looked at the scoreboard once time expired on a frantic finale to the 70th annual tournament, it showed that the third-seeded Bulldogs had topped top-seeded and defending champion Jackson 60-58 to claim the title.

"We're still trying to learn how to win close games against good teams, and we definitely didn't handle the last couple minutes very well," Unterreiner said. "But give credit to Jackson, that's a really good basketball team that's not going to quit. They're going to go down trying. Sure enough, they came in and put a lot of pressure on our guards, and a lot of pressure everywhere, got some steals, hit some big shots, and next thing you know it's a two- or three-point game. But I thought we did just enough. The thing about basketball is that it's all 32 minutes. We did just enough in those first 30 minutes to hang on the last two, and we'll take it. We'll learn from it."

Jackson faced a 14-point deficit with 3 minutes, 38 seconds remaining in the game before using a 13-3 run that made it 58-54 with 36.7 seconds left.

The Jackson bench cheers as the Indians score two points in the final moments of the fourth quarter against Notre Dame Tuesday at the Show Me Center. (Laura Simon)

After a couple of missed free throws by Notre Dame's Grant Ressel, Jackson had a chance to pull within a point, but Blake Reynolds' 3-pointer was off the mark and the Bulldogs were able to get an easy layup by Poythress to push the Bulldogs' lead to six.

Braden Wendel answered with a basket with 9.1 seconds left to make it a four-point game and Jackson took its final timeout.

The Indians came up with a steal on their full-court press, but it took too much time for them to get a shot off and have a chance to tie or take the lead.

Wendel missed a 3-pointer with about five seconds left and Jacob Smith was there for the putback for the final score.

"One thing we always challenge them, you know, there's going to be a bunch of people watching, and when they leave we want them to see a team that has great character, competes to the end, plays as hard as they can, plays together, and I did tell them I felt like that last two minutes was a test of character that they didn't quit," Jackson coach Darrin Scott said. "They gave themselves a chance. A couple balls bounce their way and they might have a chance to tie it or take the lead there at the end."

Jackson held an 8-4 lead three and a half minutes into the game, but the Bulldogs scored the final 10 points of the quarter that was capped with a corner 3-pointer at the buzzer by Brendan Boswell. The Bulldogs would never relinquish the lead, but the Indians came close several times.

Jackson had just 18 points at halftime and the Bulldogs held Yale signee Blake Reynolds to four points -- a field goal and a pair of free throws. Notre Dame led 26-18 at the break.

"They did a good job on defense kind of slowing us down, taking away what we're good at in the beginning," Reynolds said. "We weren't really expecting that coming out and we didn't get flowing offensively very well in the beginning, and that kind of got us out to a slow start, but it started to come together in the second half.

Notre Dame players congratulate Tanner Shively(20) on hitting a three-pointer, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014, in the championship game of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament at the Show Me Center. Notre Dame won 60-58. (Laura Simon)

"They did a good job of taking things away," Reynolds added. "I mean, we could've done better things obviously by moving more on offense and just making that matchup zone switch more than it did."

The Indians scored the first seven points of the second half to pull within 26-25 with 6:22 left in the third.

A 3-pointer by Reynolds cut Notre Dame's lead to 32-31 with 4:45 left in the third, and a 3-point play by Reynolds made it 39-36 with 38 seconds to go in the quarter.

"I thought we did a really good job on him the first half," Unterreiner said of Reynolds, who finished with a game-high 24 points. "I thought we took him out of his game a little bit, thought we had him settling for some tough shots, but he's a great player who's going to find a way to get buckets. In the second half we kind of let him go a little bit, he stepped out to the 3-point line, hit a few 3s and we just weren't finding him very well. Good players are going to find a way to get it done, and he sure got it done and was going in the second half."

The Bulldogs scored the last five points of the third quarter on baseline out-of-bounds plays following Jackson fouls. Ressel knocked down a 3 with 16 seconds in the third and Tanner Shively hit a baseline jumper at the buzzer to make it a 44-36 game entering the fourth.

"I thought we fought really hard to get it back to three points, and then those last two possessions they had in the third quarter were big because they made some big shots," Scott said. "We had a couple defensive breakdowns and they stepped up and made some big shots.

A Reynolds free throw and a jumper by Wendel cut it to 44-39 with 6:28 remaining.

Poythress, who finished with 17 points, made a couple of free throws and then Shively scored the next seven points of the game -- a 3-pointer, a layup and a pair of free throws -- to extend the lead to 53-49 with 4:15 left.

Notre Dame's Tanner Shively saves the ball from going out of bounds in the fourth quarter against Jackson Tuesday in the championship game of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament. (Laura Simon)

"We had a buddy whose mom died this morning, and I was out there playing for him because his mom died," Shively said. "I was out there playing for her, and she was watching over me. That's what I believe."

Shively finished with 21 points to pace the Bulldogs. He was 9 of 12 from the floor, including 2 of 3 from behind the arc and made all three of his free-throw attempts.

"He's just a great player that's been waiting to bust out like that," Unterreiner said. "He shoots the lights out of the ball at practice and he has great post moves. He's a little undersized, but he's got so much heart and got a great skill set that I've just been waiting for it to come out on the floor. By golly, he brought his game tonight and it was a lot of fun to watch."

The Bulldogs claimed the tournament title for the first time since 2005.

"We're celebrating. We're happy, but we know we've got to build off of it," Poythress said. "They're a great team and we'll be playing them again in the regular season, so it's a good feeling to win this one, but we know we're not done yet."

Notre Dame 14 12 18 16 -- 60

Jackson 8 10 18 22 -- 58

NOTRE DAME (60) -- Tanner Shively 21, Quinn Poythress 17, Grant Ressel 8, Blake Bauwens 4, Thomas Himmelberg 3, Brendan Boswell 3, Dean Crippen 2, Ross Essner 2. FG 23, FT 6-11, F 13. (3-pointers: Shively 2, Boswell 1, Ressel 1, Poythress 1. Fouled out: none.)

JACKSON (58) -- Blake Reynolds 24, Braden Wendel 12, Jacob Smith 10, Terry Venable 6, Garrett Walker 5, Connor Shepard 1. FG 34, FT 7-8, F 13. (3-pointers: Reynolds 3, Walker 1. Fouled out: none.)