SEMO Conference: Notre Dame jumps all over young Bearcats quickly

Several Notre Dame players converge defensively on to Dexter guard John Sepulvado during the consolation round of the SEMO Conference Boy's Basketball Tournament on Tuesday at the Sikeston Field House.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

The young Dexter High School boy’s basketball team is going to endure learning lessons in every game this season, as most of the roster has never competed at the varsity level, and on Tuesday, Notre Dame taught the Bearcats a lesson on needing to persevere through an offensive and defensive onslaught.

The Bulldogs walloped Dexter throughout the first quarter and never were threatened again in winning 60-46 in the consolation round of the SEMO Conference Boy’s Basketball Tournament at the Sikeston Field House.

“Early on,” Bearcat coach Chad Allen said, “we’re going to have games like this. We’re just going to have to learn from it.”

Notre Dame raced out to a 22-7 first-quarter lead courtesy of their harassing 2-2-1 zone press and a trio of 3-point shots from junior guard Carson Essner.

“Let’s be honest,” first-year Bulldog coach Jeremy Brinkmeyer said following the win, “there weren’t a lot of people here. The environment was kind of flat (and) I was a little worried about how we were going to come out.”

His players took care of any concerns, as Notre Dame got offensive production from six different players in the opening eight minutes.

The Bearcats made adjustments, and actually “played with them the rest of the game,” according to Allen. However, Notre Dame (1-2) defended well enough to never allow the Bearcats (1-3) back into the game.

“Our guys came out hungry,” Brinkmeyer said, “and our guys came out aggressive.”

Amazingly, Essner scored all 10 of his points in the opening quarter while sophomore guard Kolton Johnson took over offensively in the second half.

The 5-foot-11 athlete hit three 3-pointers following halftime and finished with a team-high 16 points. In all, Notre Dame canned nine long shots.

“We weren’t near as active, as we have been defensively in the last two games,” Allen said. “We didn’t hit the boards either. It was like we were being spectators instead of getting out there and getting after it.”

Notre Dame got 13 points from sophomore Brett Dohogne while senior Hudson Dennis added eight in the win.

Dexter sophomore shooter Tucker Temples buried five 3-pointers to score a team-high 15 points while sophomore guard John Sepulvado (nine points) and freshman Hunter Massey added eight points.

Notre Dame will try to bounce back from a season-opening 66-52 loss to Charleston by playing the Blue Jays (3-1) again today at 7:30 p.m.

Dexter is off until Monday when it hosts Richland (Essex) (2-1) at the Bearcat Event Center at 7:30 p.m.