ND falls in semis of SEMO tourney

~ Poplar Bluff reached the title game with a 58-51 victory

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The Notre Dame Regional High School boys basketball team got into an early hole and spent the rest of the night playing catch up.

Notre Dame did, but only briefly, as Poplar Bluff held on for a 58-51 victory in Thursday's semifinal of the SEMO Conference tournament.

Coach Kevin Roberts still came away encouraged by the play of his Bulldogs, who were sloppy with the ball but displayed solid defense.

"It was a good game. I'm not displeased," Roberts said. "Give us some time. It's our fourth game and we played a lot of people.

"I thought we played hard. We can guard defensively. We didn't value the ball too well. We threw it around. If we can take care of the ball and get a good shot, we'll be pretty good because we'll play defense."

Poplar Bluff (4-1), seeded second in the eight-team event, advanced to tonight's championship game against host Sikeston, the top seed.

Sikeston (4-0) routed No. 4 New Madrid County Central 71-43 in the other semifinal.

Third-seeded Notre Dame (2-2) will play NMCC for third place at 7 p.m.

"They're really an athletic team and we knew it would be our toughest game so far," Notre Dame junior forward Jacob Tolbert said of Poplar Bluff. "We got off to kind of a rough start and we were trying to play catch up."

The 6-foot-7 Tolbert, who is drawing interest from several Division I programs, did his best to help the Bulldogs rally.

Tolbert scored a game-high 20 points, four coming on a pair of impressive dunks. The second, a two-handed follow jam in traffic, pulled Notre Dame within 42-40 early in the fourth quarter.

"I just tried to go for it," Tolbert said. "You never know if it'll be there or not."

Quite a few of Tolbert's baskets came on put-backs, leading Roberts to say the Bulldogs didn't look for their inside standout nearly enough.

"He needs to get the ball more," Roberts said. "We talked about how he needs to get a touch every time down the floor."

Senior guard Ke-Ke Kellum added 11 points off the bench for Notre Dame. He hit three of the Bulldogs' four 3-pointers.

Jay Raulston, a 6-6 senior, paced the Mules with 15 points. Eljie Johnson, a powerfully built 6-0 junior, added 13 points.

"They were strong inside," Roberts said. "They killed us on the boards."

Notre Dame only led twice all night. After the Bulldogs scored the game's opening basket, Poplar Bluff bolted to a 15-10 lead after one quarter.

The Mules went up 21-13 early in the second period before settling for a 26-23 halftime advantage.

"We got behind early and fought an uphill battle the whole game," Roberts said. "It's tough to play from behind."

Things stayed tight the entire second half. Notre Dame grabbed its second and final lead as two Kellum free throws made it 36-35 with 1 minute, 18 seconds left in the third quarter.

Johnson's tip-in less than 20 seconds later regained the lead for Poplar Bluff at 37-36, and it was 40-36 entering the final period.

After Tolbert's follow dunk early in the fourth trimmed Poplar Bluff's edge to 42-40, the Mules scored the next four points.

Kellum's 3-pointer with 2:55 left pulled the Bulldogs within 48-47, but again the Mules scored four straight.

Notre Dame cut its deficit to three points twice more, but each time Poplar Bluff had an answer.

Raulston's follow shot with 1:05 remaining made it 56-51 and two free throws iced the victory.

"They're a good team," Tolbert said. "We just have to keep working to get better."

Notre Dame 10 13 13 15 -- 51

Poplar Bluff 15 11 14 18 -- 58

NOTRE DAME (51) -- Nick Koeppel 8, Ke-Ke Kellum 11, Alex Carroll 3, Luciano Starling 1, Jacob Tolbert 20, Matt Helle 4, Dylan Essner 4. FG 19, FT 9-10, F 16. (3-pointers: Kellum 3, Carroll 1. Fouled out: none)

POPLAR BLUFF (58) -- Kendric McCain 4, Greg Coble 4, Zach McAnulty 4, Jay Raulston 15, Jordan Marler 5, Nick Shrum 2 Jake White 11, Eljie Johnson 13. FG 22, FT 11-15, F 12. (3-pointers: Marler 1, White 2. Fouled out: none)