COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Ending the season with a victory was the only way for the Notre Dame boys basketball team to move on from Thursday's state semifinal loss.

The Bulldogs led for all but 2 minutes, 7 seconds and came away with a 65-44 win in the Class 4 third-place game Friday at Mizzou Arena.

The victory brought an end to the high school careers of 10 Notre Dame seniors, including Tanner Shively, who said his team's journey to the final four was an unbelievable experience.

"Starting out at the beginning of the season, I didn't think we'd be here, let alone win a district championship," Shively said. "... There are two [Class 4] teams in the state of Missouri that get to finish their season with a win, and for us to be one of them, that's pretty unbelievable."

The Bulldogs (27-5) took the lead for good with 5:53 remaining in the first quarter on a jumper by Dean Crippen inside the paint. Crippen finished with 16 points, including eight in the first quarter.

Notre Dame's Dean Crippen, left, and Nick Bradshaw, right, hug Derek Hulshof after the Bulldogs 65-44 Class 4 third place win over Bolivar, Friday, March 20, 2015, in Columbia, Missouri. (Laura Simon)

"The last couple of games, he's been unbelievable," Notre Dame coach Paul Unterreiner said about Crippen, who shot 6 of 11 (55 percent) from the floor and was a perfect 4 of 4 from the free-throw line. "Freshman year, he was a B-team player. He was a completely uncoordinated big, ole man and just worked his tail off. ... Yesterday he kind of missed a few, but today you saw it again. That's the player he's become, and I'm just so proud to know Dean Crippen."

After Conley Garrison's 3-pointer cut Notre Dame's lead to seven points, Blake Bauwens knocked down a trey from the left corner to cap an 8-2 run for the Bulldogs in the final 2:32 of the quarter. Notre Dame led 23-10 at the end of the opening period.

In comparison to Thursday's semifinal loss to Hillcrest, Unterreiner was pleased with the way his players protected their lead.

"This time we actually held on a little bit after that. Yesterday we didn't," said Unterreiner, whose team fell behind in the fourth quarter Thursday and was never able to recover. "I don't know what the difference was. I think our guys just played with a lot more confidence tonight.

"They played more loose, and yesterday we just had a bad game. That's just all there is to it. Some of my coaches tried to break it down more than it is, but we just didn't play well. It's that simple, and today we played a lot better."

Notre Dame continued to pound the paint in the second quarter. Crippen scored a layup to extend the Bulldogs' lead to 29-14 with 4:45 remaining in the half, but the Liberators (26-6) closed on a 9-2 run and trailed by eight points at halftime.

In the first half, Notre Dame outscored Bolivar 18-8 in the paint. The Bulldogs finished with a 30-18 advantage.

Notre Dame fans cheer on the Bulldogs during a Class 4 third-place game against Bolivar, Friday, March 20, 2015, in Columbia, Missouri. Notre Dame won 65-44. (Laura Simon)

"Any year I coach basketball, I'd take these two guys [Crippen and Shively] on my team," Unterreiner said. "The way they battle, it just makes me proud. It's always every game we play, I don't care how big the other team is, we're going to throw it inside. That's just how we are supposed to play. That's just the way we play, and that's how we get our 3s."

A jumper by Quinn Poythress pushed Notre Dame's lead to 12 points with 5:58 to go in the third quarter. The Liberators answered with a pair of free throws from Brandon Emmert before switching to a 1-3-1 pressure defense that forced a turnover and led to a 3-pointer from Conley, cutting the Bulldogs' lead to 37-30 with 5:03 left in the period.

"We got away from things we do," said Unterreiner, who called a timeout following the five-point flurry. "We didn't run our press break. Quinn took it out, and he's not the one who takes it out. It was just little things, and then it throws everybody off. So we addressed that and just kind of tried to fix those small things."

Notre Dame carried a nine-point lead into the final quarter, and Bolivar scored the first four points of the period to trim its deficit to 47-42 with 6:30 left in the game.

The Bulldogs closed the game on an 18-2 run, during which Poythress contributed seven of his game-high 25 points and Shively scored six of his eight.

With less than three minutes left in the game, Poythress took a hard foul and followed it up with a trey from the left corner to push Notre Dame's lead to 60-44.

Notre Dame's Quinn Poythress sails in for a shot around Bolivar's Johnny Scott in the third quarter of the Bulldogs Class 4 third-place game against the Liberators, Friday, March 20, 2015, in Columbia, Missouri. Notre Dame won 65-44. (Laura Simon)

"I love Quinn to death, but sometimes he gets a little too worked up. And I've got to calm him down. We get up here, and he kind of gets worked up and was kind of struggling a little bit. It's a very thin line you're walking as a coach because he's a competitor, and when he got that flagrant foul, he called the inbounds play himself because he wanted to hit the 3 in the corner," Unterreiner said about Poythress, who was 4 of 6 from 3-point range. "That's the kind of guy that he is, and he [made] it."

The Bulldogs shot 23 of 49 (47 percent) from the field. Unterreiner said he was happy with the way Poythress and Shively asserted themselves in the final eight minutes of the game.

"He stepped up big for us tonight, hit some big shots, and sometimes he tries to force things," Unterreiner said. "I had to call [Shively and Crippen] over and say, 'Quinn, we're going to throw it to you, and then you're going to throw it to the high post to Tanner, not shoot it.' Sometimes you've just got to tell him, and he's always on board with whatever. Tonight he played phenomenal."

The Liberators shot 14 of 38 (37 percent) from the field and were led by Emmert, who finished with 18 points. Garrison contributed 10 points.

"Bolivar played their tails off tonight," Unterreiner said. "They move the ball really well. They're well coached. They swung that ball around the perimeter, and we couldn't catch up. If they hit a few more shots, it's a different ballgame."