December 10, 2014
Jimerson leads NMCC to 63-53 upset win over Notre Dame in conference tournament
sports@standard-democrat.com SIKESTON -- In the SEMO Conference, any win is a good win. But for New Madrid County Central's Willie Jimerson, he believed his team's win over Notre Dame was a bit sweeter. The Eagles, seeded fifth in the SEMO Conference tournament, pulled off the third upset of the tournament so far taking down No. 4 Notre Dame 63-53 at the Sikeston Field House...
By Chris Pobst - Standard Democrat
sports@standard-democrat.com
SIKESTON -- In the SEMO Conference, any win is a good win.
But for New Madrid County Central's Willie Jimerson, he believed his team's win over Notre Dame was a bit sweeter.
The Eagles, seeded fifth in the SEMO Conference tournament, pulled off the third upset of the tournament so far taking down No. 4 Notre Dame 63-53 at the Sikeston Field House.
"We really looked at the fifth seed as motivation," Jimerson said. "We didn't pout or anything like that, we just wanted to prove everyone wrong that we weren't the fifth seed."
Jimerson led all scorers with 31 points. Senior Mikeal Walker and sophomore Javarcus Word each added nine.
Tuesday was NMCC's first win in the first round of the SEMO Conference tournament since 2009 and just their seventh win total. The Eagles are 7-15 all-time in, arguably, one of the toughest conference tournaments in the state.
"This conference is so tough I don't care what seed you are," New Madrid County Central head coach Travis Day said. "There's been some lower seeds that's been winning and I told my guys to just battle for four quarters and let the chips fall where they may."
Those chips were safest bet on Day's star guard. Jimerson scored 17 of his game-high 31 in the first half.
"Willie was the best player on the floor, by far," First-year head coach Paul Unterreiner said. "He single-handedly got to the paint every time and either hit an incredible shot or gave it to somebody for a wide open three. He was tough to contain and we just didn't."
The agile 5-10 Jimerson produced with consistency throughout by doing what he does best -- getting to the rim to finish off the glass or quickly pulling up for a stop-and-pop from 10 feet away.
"He's playing to his strength," Day said about Jimerson. "We've always told him to play to his strength and don't let anybody take him out of that. We knew they were going to try and take charges on him and he was able to pull up at the free throw line and hit jump shots. He stayed in attack mode."
Notre Dame, who was coming off of their first win of the season after defeating Charleston at home in overtime on Friday, was led by Quinn Poythress' 20 points. Derek Hulshof added 17.
"I just think it was a lack of effort," Unterreiner said about the loss. "I told those guys that in there. I said, 'Anytime you play a team they're going to give us everything they've got.' At this level, if you don't bring everything you've got, you're not going to be in the game very long."
Unterreiner pointed out that what he thought could be a strength for his taller lineup against NMCC was rebounding. That wasn't the case.
"One thing I thought that we can do pretty well is rebound the basketball and tonight I think they just out-manned us there," he said.
NMCC (4-0) went to its bread and butter early on by causing turnovers and using its speed to run the floor. That tactic gave them an 8-2 lead within the first three minutes.
"That's what we're supposed to do," Jimerson said about his team's quick start. "We're small. Coach always tells us to get the rebound and look up to try and get a layup. That's really our offense."
An old-fashioned 3-point play by Poythress gave Notre Dame its first and only lead of the game with 1:44 left in the opening quarter but a basket by Jimerson shortly after lifted NMCC to a 12-11 advantage at the end of the first period.
NMCC outscored Notre Dame 20-10 in the second to enjoy a 32-21 lead at halftime.
"We were able to get out and run and play fast like we wanted to do," said Day. "I think we slowly wore them down. They're a really good shooting team but we were able to play fast enough were those shots started coming up short."
The Eagles ditched its fast-paced style in the second half for a more methodical approach. They slowed the pace and worked to find the best shot possible.
"We're slowly maturing and started settling for good shots. We were able to keep that 8-10 point lead because we were able to run time off the clock where in the past we'd throw it away."
Notre Dame fell behind by as many as 13 points in the third but finished the quarter on a
9-2 run cutting their deficit to 45-37 entering the final quarter.
Poythress opened the fourth period with a bucket to cut NMCC's lead to six, but a quick 7-2 run capped by another 3-pointer from Palmer pushed NMCC back ahead by 11 where it hovered around for the rest of the game.
"Offensively, I thought we were fine when we ran our offense," said Unterreiner. "But when they scored a few buckets on us and took a lead we kind of panicked and took some bad shots. That kind of stuff keeps piling on top of each other."
NMCC moves on to the championship semifinals where they will play top-seeded Jackson, who were 72-40 winners over No. 8 Kennett, on Thursday at 6 p.m.
NMCC 12 20 13 18 -- 63
Notre Dame 11 10 16 16 -- 53
NMCC (63) -- Willie Jimerson 31, Mikeal Walker 9, Javarcus Word 9, Drew Palmer 8, Asten Newsom 4, Deon Jenkins 2. FG 27 FT 6-10 F 15. (3-pointers: Walker 1, Palmer 2. Fouled out: none.)
NOTRE DAME (53) -- Blake Bauwens 8, Chase Urhahn 2, Quinn Poythress 20, Trenton Schumer 4, Derek Hulshof 17, Dean Crippen 2. FG 22 FT 6-11 F 18. (3-pointers: Bauwens 2, Poythress 1. Fouled out: none.)
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