Kolton Johnson's 25-point performance leads Bulldogs past Hawks in a physical showdown

The Notre Dame boys basketball team defeated the Hillsboro Hawks 65-56 on Tuesday at Notre Dame Regional High School.

Kolton Johnson led the Bulldogs with 25 points, followed by Brett Dohogne with 14 and Brody Harden with 10.

The first quarter was the Kolton Johnson show as the senior totaled 11 points. Notre Dame scored much of their points on the interior against a Hawks defense who kept losing Dohogne under the basket. The Bulldogs led 21-10 after a first with foul trouble on both teams.

The Hillsboro defense stepped up its game in the second quarter and made things hard on Notre Dame in the paint. Some threes from the Hawks closed the gap but more foul trouble hindered the teams. Notre Dame held a modest 35-32 lead at the half.

Bulldogs head coach Jeremy Brinkmeyer said his team knew it would be a physical game and handled it well.

“We didn't handle physicality very well earlier in the year against some teams, and tonight we told them, ‘this will be the same type of game and we need to respond better,” Brinkmeyer said. “I thought we did that, it helped jumping out early and being focused, which allowed us to stay calm. That’s kind of a big thing for us, that we're trying to focus on, to start now quicker, and that allows us to handle the physicality and the chippiness a lot better.”

The third quarter began with a Notre Dame 9-2 run with easy inside buckets and forced Hillsboro into a timeout. The Bulldogs continued to force the ball inside against the weak Hillsboro defense creating little resistance. A Johnson three at the buzzer gave Notre Dame a 54-39 third-quarter lead.

A few of Hillsboro’s best players fouled out in the fourth but the Hawks still managed to make it a four-point game late. The foul game at the end proved futile as the Bulldogs sank their free throws when it counted.

Brinkmeyer said the defensive effort and little turnovers helped his team get the win tonight.

“Turnovers have kind of been a problem of ours, and we've had back-to-back games with under double-digit turnovers. When we take care of the ball and we play defense, we're a pretty tough team,” Brinkmeyer said. “Sometimes, basketball is a pretty simple game, and if we just do those two things, we have a shot against a lot of people. That was kind of how we won tonight, was just rebounding and not turning the ball over.”

Notre Dame has four games left beginning with a road trip to Poplar Bluff on Friday followed by some good teams in Farmington and St. Francis Borgia.

Brinkmeyer said he likes where his team is before hard games heading into the postseason.

“We know going down to Bluff is always going to be a physical game. We’re excited to go up against a really good team and see what we got. Because at the end of the day, all that matters is learning to be better for the end,” Brinkmeyer said. “That’s why we play all these tough teams to put ourselves in situations to learn what we need to fix before districts. We’re excited about these next four games to just see what we got.”

The Bulldogs and Mules tipoff at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.