Brent Dohogne shines with 26 points as Notre Dame dominates Kennett

Brent Dohogne scored 26 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead Notre Dame to a 63-38 win at home over Class 4 District 1 rival Kennett on Friday, Jan 18, in Cape Girardeau.

Home games have been rare in the first half of Notre Dame's schedule, but the Bulldogs have capitalized on all of them, posting a 3-0 record thus far.

"There's nothing better than a full house on a Friday night at Notre Dame," said Bulldogs head coach Jeremy Brinkmeyer. "There's just a lot of great energy tonight and we came out and played with a lot of energy and effort because of it. It really helped propelled us to beat a really good team in Kennett."

Dohogne did most of his damage in the first half with 20 points, 12 of which came in the first quarter, helping the Bulldogs establish a 17-10 lead that they would not relinquish.

"That's what Brett does," Brinkmeyer said. "He's a great player and he has great touch inside. I'm just glad he had a great rebound game."

Between his eight points and a three-point basket from both Kolton Johnson and Trenton Schumacker, the Bulldogs scored 20 points in the second quarter to enter halftime leading the Indians 37-23.

"[Dohogne] did a great job of not settling tonight, and did a great job of demanding the ball tonight, and did a great job of going to the rim and finishing through contact, and that's the Brett we know," Brinkmeyer said.

While Dohogne cooled in the second half, Johnson took the lead with a pair of three-pointers in the third quarter to score half of Notre Dame's 12 points in the period while the Bulldogs held the Indians to five points.

The Bulldogs finished the game with a 14-10 fourth quarter led by a pair of buckets from Hudson Dennis, who scored eight through the night.

Johnson finished the game with 11 points as the Bulldogs' only other double-digit scorer.

"It was a lot of what the other team has given us," Brinkmeyer said. "The first half, they were really trying to pressure our guards and really trying to spread out and that left the inside open, and that allowed Brett to attack inside.

"In second half, he felt they did a little more focusing on inside, which allowed Kolton to get open. And that's the great thing when you have a combo and they're inside and outside guys like Kolton and Brett is they get to work off each other."

Kennett was led by Dyson Watson, who scored 13 points including 6-of-7 shots from the free throw line. Hayden Gilmore scored 11 points including three shots from the three-point line.

"I think Kennett's a very good team," Brinkmeyer said. "They've got some really good players."

At 8-6, Notre Dame is leading the district and increasingly likely to enter the tournament as the top seed. The Bulldogs return home on Thursday, Jan. 23, against Malden.

Kennett (5-9) return home on Friday, Jan. 24, to host Sikeston.