SIKESTON, Mo. - The seventh-seeded Dexter Bearcats made a late run in the semifinals of the SEMO Conference Tournament on Thursday night.
However, the sixth-seeded Notre Dame Bulldogs and junior Dawson Dohogne held on for a 69-64 win to earn a spot in the championship game against Sikeston.
Sikeston, the top seed, held off fourth-seeded Cape Central 92-87 in Thursday's other game.
Dexter will face Cape Central for third place at 7 p.m. Friday.
Dexter coach Josh Dowdy remained optimistic following the loss.
"Typically on a (Friday) night on the week of the SEMO Conference tournament, our kids are in Dexter. We're not over in Sikeston," said Dowdy, whose Bearcats hadn't reached the semifinals of the tournament since the 1960s. "This was foreign ground for us, but it was a nice change to be over here playing, and now we get another game against another quality team in Cape."
The Bulldogs (3-1) led by as many as nine points in the fourth quarter, but Dexter (1-3) made a trio of runs.
"I thought we showed some resilience at the end, trying to come back," Dowdy said, "but our defensive effort was just not good enough to advance to play in the championship game of the SEMO Conference Tournament. That's what I was most disappointed in. We switched defenses a number of times to try to slow down their attack. Typically, we score 64 points, that's enough for us to win."
Trailing 56-47, the Bearcats sliced their deficit to one on a 3-pointer by Ben Sindle, and a three-point play on a driving layup by Clay Mullins.
However, Kam Dohogne stopped the run with a 3-pointer, and Dawson Dohogne converted a three-point play to put the Bulldogs ahead 62-55 with 3 minutes remaining.
The Bearcats climbed within two points with 1:12 left.
Mullins scored on a fastbreak layup and came up with a steal after a tipped pass by Braxton Foster. Sindle converted the turnover into a 3-pointer to cut the Bearcats' deficit to 62-60.
Dawson Dohogne struck again when he beat the defense down the floor and scored on a wide-open layup. Kam Dohogne converted a three-point play with 51.1 seconds left for seven-point Notre Dame lead.
Sindle sank two free throws and Seth Rogers turned an Alan Pippins steal into two points to slice the Bearcats' deficit to 67-64 with 19.9 seconds remaing.
However, the Bulldogs beat the Dexter press seconds later, finding Dawson Dohogne wide open for another layup and the game-clincher.
Dawson Dohogne finished with 18 points with 17 coming in the second half.
"It's nice to have him on the floor," Notre Dame coach Paul Unterrainer said. "He picked up two (fouls) in the first quarter. We had a lead and we held it to halftime. I wasn't going to put him back in unless it got to a two-point game, and it never got there. ... I thought our other guys stepped up and did a good job of kind of keeping that cushion for us. It allowed us to keep Dawson fresh for the second half, which probably eventually won us the game."
The Bulldogs nailed five first-quarter 3-pointers to build a 16-9 lead. Jack Floyd made three of them and finished with 11 points. Tyler Landewee and Braden Noel had one each. Noel finished with 14 points, and Landewee had nine.
"They came out and hit a lot of 3s there early in the game. I didn't anticipate that," Dowdy said, "and I was real happy at halftime to be down four (34-30)."
Gabe Jackson, who was held to only nine points after scoring 19 in the Bearcats' tournament-opening upset of Charleston, scored inside and Mullins, who tallied a game-high 21 points, nailed a jumper to cut Notre Dame's lead to 16-13.
Notre Dame began attacking inside in the second quarter behind nine points by Noel.
"(In the second quarter) they put the ball on the floor," Dowdy said. "We took some head fakes that we talked a lot about staying down and staying wide. It's easier said than done. These kids have to go out and execute."
The Bulldogs led by as many as 10 points (32-22) in the second before Dexter finished strong with an 8-2 half-closing run.
Sindle made the first of his five 3-pointers, and Mullins sank two free throws and scored on a driving layup to slice Notre Dame's lead to 32-29.
After a jumper by Noel, Dawson Kasting made one of two free throws with 27.9 seconds left to make the halftime score 34-30.
The Bearcats took the lead for the first time since 2-1 in the third quarter. Sindle's 3-pointer sliced their deficit to 36-35 and Pippins followed with a 3-pointer for a 38-36 lead. Jackson scored on a fastbreak to extend his team's lead to 40-36.
Dawson Dohogne scored the Bulldogs' final seven points, including the tying basket with 31.4 seconds left and the go-ahead basket seconds later, giving Notre Dame a 47-45 lead.