Basketball postseason notebook: ND boys hold distinction of defeating all foes after avenging loss

Heading into Saturday night's Class 4 District 1 championship, the Notre Dame boys basketball team had beaten all but one of the teams it played this season.

That one team was Sikeston, which forced a running clock midway through the fourth period of a 62-32 rout of Notre Dame on Dec. 19 at the Sikeston Field House.

"It was a bad night for us," Notre Dame coach Paul Unterreiner said following the loss. "The key is how are we going to bounce back? Are we going to walk out here as one family, or are we going to walk out here all broken?"

Notre Dame (24-4) responded by winning 21 of its next 22 games, including Saturday night's 63-56 redemption win over Sikeston at the field house.

"We came out flat that first time. We definitely weren't going to come out flat this time," Notre Dame senior Dean Crippen said. "This is the district championship. This is a big deal."

Senior Quinn Poythress said the team's focus was to simply improve.

"One of the main goals that coach had was that as the season goes on, we had to get better," Poythress said. "At the beginning of the season, those games don't matter."

That hard work and determination paid off, and senior Tanner Shively believes this is only the beginning.

"It's all of us, from the bigs to the last guy on the floor," Shively said. "Every single guy on our team can contribute, so I think we can go all the way this year. I really do."

Sophomore sensation

Despite being a team that consists of 10 seniors, Notre Dame received another double-digit performance from its lone sophomore.

Blake Bauwens, who scored 17 points in the Bulldogs' semifinal win over Kennett, turned in a 10-point performance in Saturday's championship. The 5-foot-11 starting guard knocked down a 3-pointer from the left corner to spark a 10-4 run in the final 3 minutes, 42 seconds of the third period, which gave Notre Dame a 45-32 lead heading into the final period.

"He fits in perfectly with us," Crippen said. "It's like he's a senior. You wouldn't think any different. It's really surprising.

"He got a little shaky there at the end, but he brought it back in. I was like, 'Bauwens, just have confidence.' That's what we all say to him because he'll get flaky with his shot."

Bauwens drained three treys and was 6 of 11 (55 percent) from the floor in the Bulldogs' 75-58 win over Kennett on Friday. Unterreiner said Bauwens' offensive game is beginning to blossom.

"That's a big game for a sophomore to have in this environment," Unterreiner said after Friday's win. "... The guys have done a good job of buying into him being a part of this team and his role. He did an outstanding job for us tonight."

Quick turnaround

The Scott County Central boys basketball team didn't let playing two Class 2 elimination games within a 24-hour span bother it.

The Braves six-point win over Thayer on Friday actually provided them a wake-up call for how much more intense they needed to be against Valle Catholic on Saturday if they were going to reach the state final four for the second year in a row and the seventh time in eight years.

"We knew we had to pressure them. We had to speed them up. We had to speed them up," SCC coach Frank Staple said about the Braves' task heading into the game with Valle Catholic. "We had to take 10 [Daniel Bergtholdt] and 3 [Connor Basler] out of the game, run them off the 3-point line and not let them get comfortable. I don't know how successful we were at that because they had a great game.

"But we just had to come out and play with a lot of energy. We didn't play with a lot of energy [Friday] night, but we knew if we came out and played with a lot of energy we would at least put ourself in the position to win."

No time for a TO

The Advance boys basketball team didn't even think about calling a timeout to set up a play just before Preston Wuebker's game-winning jump shot in the final five seconds of a Class 1 quarterfinal against South Iron on Saturday.

Instead, the Hornets were prepared to execute their "two minute passing drill", which set the stage for the dramatic finish, according to Wuebker.

"We just moved the ball a lot. There was no play," Wuebker said. "In practice we put two minutes on the clock, run the clock and work the ball for two minutes. We don't try to score or nothing. We just work the ball around and pass so that we know where to be and where to pass to for open shots in a game."

Advance junior Austin Ladd, who was on the court when the Hornets took the lead for good, said the extra work his team devotes to passing in practice is exactly why they were so prepared for the final possession without having to burn a timeout.

"It's just freelancing and getting the best shot we could," Ladd said. "We just get in our offense, get other guys to play defense in practice and we just get the best looks we can out of it. You could tell it helped out a whole bunch. We knew what we could do, knew what was open and just found Preston."