By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

CAPE GIRARDEAU - The Dexter Bearcat Wrestling team had an outstanding showing in the annual Tiger Classic, the area’s most prestigious wrestling tournament, held on Friday and Saturday (Dec. 16 & 17).

The Bearcats were one of 16 teams in the two-day tournament, and advanced seven wrestlers to the Championship bracket on Friday.

”This was by far our best first-night showing,” head coach Rick Schwab said. “The kids have been gearing up for this tournament for a while.”

After several hard-fought matches on Saturday morning, all seven Bearcats in the Championship bracket put themselves in position to take home a medal.

Trevor Waldner, a sophomore in the 126 lb. class, knocked off Aaron Minx, currently ranked No. 4 in the state, of Desoto to advance to the medal round. The ‘Cats also advanced Cole Dean (Senior, 138 lbs.), T.J. Stoner (Senior, 152 lbs.), Cody Stevens (Senior, 160 lbs., ranked No. 4 in the state), Logan Quertermous (Junior, 182 lbs.), Zach Watson (Senior, 195 lbs.), and Zach Lacy (Senior, 220 lbs., ranked No. 6 in the state) to the medal round in their respective weight classes.

The ‘Cats took home plenty of hardware from the tournament, with all seven wrestlers in the Championship bracket earning medals. The ‘Cats as a team finished in ninth place out of 16 teams.

“This is by far our best finish in my coaching career at this tournament,” he said. “The boys have something to be proud of and new goals to go after. This week, we set a goal to get five medalists, and they surpassed it with seven.”

The Bearcats will be in action again on December 29, when the JV squad competes in the Cape Central JV Tournament. The Varsity squad won’t hit the mats again until 2012, when they travel to Park Hills for a match on January 6.

Thanks to SMT Readers Kim Waldner and Kelly Mangus for the photos!

---

OLATHE, Kan. -- Despite recovering from a 16-1 run by MidAmerica Nazarene to start the second half, the William Woods University women's basketball team fell short in a double-overtime thriller, losing 84-78. Miranda Loesch posted the second double-double (10 pts, 10 reb) in as many nights for the Owls, but missed free throws to close out both regulation and the first overtime period would trip up WWU.

William Woods jumped out to an early lead, but trailed 18-25 midway through the first half. Over the final 10:14, however, the Owls put up an 18-7 run to take a four-point cushion into the locker room.

Coming out of the intermission, William Woods found itself on the wrong side of a MNU run. The Owls missed five field goal tries and coughed the ball up five times over the first 5:57 in the second half to turn a 36-32 lead into a 37-48 deficit. A bucket by Ashlee Taylor (Dexter, Mo.) with 13:39 on the clock stemmed the bleeding, and WWU slowly climbed back into the game.

Trailing 64-59 with 2:54 on the clock, Sharron Andrews (Oakland/Hayward, Calif.) was fouled on a putback attempt, but was only able to make the second of her two free throws. She made up for the miss on the next MNU possession, swiping the ball from Janee' Garza and scoring a layup to pull the Owls within two before knotting the game at 64-64 with 1:52 to go after a defensive stop.

After tying the game at 66-66 with 13 seconds left, WWU dodged a bullet as MNU wasn't able to connect on its desperation heave at the buzzer, sending the game to overtime.

The teams traded the lead a couple times over the first extra stanza, but WWU found itself up 73-71 with 40 seconds left when a foul called on MNU's CJ Wesemann gave Andrews the opportunity to ice the game as both teams were in the double bonus. The senior would miss both of the free throws, and this time it would be WWU's desperation heave at the buzzer that couldn't break the tie following an MNU conversion.

In the second overtime, the Owls just couldn't find the range, missing on all three of their field goal attempts, eventually falling by a six-point margin.

WWU drops to 7-4 on the year. Andrews led the team with a game-high 17 points, with Megan Aubuchon (Old Monroe, Mo.) adding 15 points and Katie Scherder (Bowling Green, Mo.) adding 11. The Owls were just barely edged in the rebounding battle (46-48), but recorded six blocks to none for the Pioneers. WIlliam Woods will have an exhibition stop after Christmas, traveling to Macomb, Ill., to take on the NCAA Div. I Western Illinois Leathernecks. Tipoff for the December 27 contest is set for 5 p.m.

ROLLA - In a match-up of unbeatens the Missouri S&T Lady Miners were able to come away victorious with a 77-63 win over the Westminster Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon in Rolla.

The Lady Miners (8-0) recorded season-highs in points (77), field goal percentage (56 percent) and made three’s (6) to keep its undefeated start to the season going. On the flip side though they allowed a season-high in points scored.

The game was a see-saw affair in the opening half with four ties and 16 lead changes. S&T led by as many as seven in the opening half but were unable to shake the Blue Jays (6-1).

Westminster was able to stay in the game due to the Lady Miners turning it over 12 times resulting in 16 points. The Jays also had the edge on the offensive glass with eight rebounds turning those into five second chance points.

S&T held a 36-29 edge with 1:31 to play in the first half thanks to back-to-back three’s from Toni Knar. Westminster cut the lead to a basket on a three from Leigh Ann Lutz and a jumper by Talisha Washington right before the break.

The Lady Miners shot 65 percent (13-for-20) from the floor in the opening frame and were able to stay in front in large part due to the production from the bench. S&T’s bench scored 16 points in the stanza.

The Blue Jays continued to hang around at the start of the second half as a three from Rachel Backes kept the back-and-forth contest going. A Julie Meyer jumper tied the game at 42 before Liz Klaffenbach gave the Jays its last lead of the game on a lay-up at the 17:21 mark. Meyer converted an old-fashioned three-point play a minute later giving S&T a lead it wouldn’t relinquish. The lead grew to nine on a three from Dexter native Katelyn Heil at the 7:27 mark and Westminster wouldn’t get any closer the rest of the way.

Heil gave the Lady Miners a double digit lead scoring four straight points on a pair of free throws and a fast break lay-up with 5:39 left in the contest.

S&T salted it away thanks to a 10-1 run behind six points from Heil including another fast break basket with less than two minutes to play.

The Lady Miners were 15-for-30 from the floor in the second half and 10-for-12 at the foul line. They finished the contest 28-of-50 from the field, 6-for-12 from behind the arc and 15-of-20 at the foul line. They also had a 34-to-22 edge on the glass.

Heil scored a career-high 16 points to lead four players in double figures. Her previous career-high also happened to come against Westminster scoring 13 on Dec. 12, 2009. Hailee Parks added 14, Meyer had 13 and Courtney Kemp finished with 10. Meyer also had eight rebounds.

The Blue Jays were led by Lutz with 15, Backes added 12 while Hannah Kloster dropped in 10. Westminster shot 40 percent (23-for-58) for the contest and was 7-for-20 from downtown.

S&T returns to action after the Christmas break when it travels to Findlay, Ohio to take on the University of Findlay on Thursday, Dec. 29, at 4:30 p.m. (CST).

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

BROSELEY - The Lady ‘Cats improved their win streak to four games with a 88-11 win over the Malden Green Wave in the opening round of the Lady Royals Christmas Classic.

The squads faced an unusual tip time - the game was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. - for the No. 1 - No. 16 matchup, but LBB head coach Chad Allen noted it as a non-issue for his team. “For being at nine in the morning, it seemed like our girls were ready to go,” Allen said. “They got after it, and we definitely kept a lot of pressure on them. We created a lot of turnovers, and scored a lot of points on those turnovers.”


The Bearcats’ full-court press was incredibly effective in the first half; as a team, the Lady ‘Cats turned 38 turnovers, and Hannah Noe and Brittany Harris came up with seven and five steals, respectively.

The Lady ‘Cats opened the contest with two big runs; they dropped 18 unanswered before Jennifer Miller hit a jumper at the 4:50 mark for Malden’s first points of the game. The ‘Cats went on to another 14 point run to take a 32-2 lead at the end of the first.

Alison Jarrell, who was out with an injury, and Katelynn Frazier were both out of action on Saturday morning, but Allen was able to move up Katie Reiker and Breanna Bowers from the JV squad.


Bowers was able to contribute 2 points and 4 boards, while Reiker chipped in 2 points and 4 assists.

“It’s definitely good to get some of those younger kids in there. With Katelynn and Alison out right now, we had to bring up two JV players in Katie Reiker and Breanna Bowers,” Allen said. “I thought it was great for them to play at the varsity level and get some experience. You could tell the were a little shaky and nervous, but once they got settled down, they played well for us.”

The Lady ‘Cats will be back in action on Monday (Dec. 19) night, when they face off with the No. 8 Doniphan Donettes. Tip is set for 7:30 p.m.

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

ESSEX - After dropping five straight games to open the 2011-2012 season, the Bearcats picked up their first win in blowout fashion on Friday night when they faced the Richland Rebels.

The Bearcats knocked down seven threes on their way to a 78-31 win against their first SCAA opponent.

“That’s something we talked about; we haven’t shot that many threes in our first few games, but as small as we are, that’s something that we’re going to have to do and get better at as the year goes on,” head coach Rob Nichols said after the game. “We’ve got some guys that can shoot it, but we haven’t taken many of those shots to this point.”

The Bearcats had a challenge on their hands in the paint with Richland’s near seven-foot center Richard Forshee; Tyler Miller and Jake Lee both did an outstanding job guarding the big man, and got him in foul trouble in the second and third quarters.

Miller and Chase Young paced the ‘Cats with 17 points each; D.J. Dowdy had nine off the bench, while Jordan Fitts knocked down seven points.
The Bearcats, aided by two threes from Miller and one from Young, opened up with 18 unanswered points before the Rebels scored in the final 90 seconds of the first quarter.

“That’s the main thing we wanted to do tonight, just get out to a good start and make sure we played well,” Nichols said.

The Rebels turned the ball over 34 times throughout the game; the ‘Cats were able to force many early due to their full-court pressure, which Nichols pointed out as more of a ‘test run’ for his team.

“We haven’t really pressed much this year, so we wanted to look at it tonight and see if we were going to be able to do it,” he said. :In the first few games we played man-to-man predominately; we just wanted to take a look at it and see if it worked.”

The ‘Cats were able to get some of their bench players some valuable action in the contest, with Bailey Hampton, Jonathan Page and Tyler Wilson playing extensively throughout the contest. Nick Noble, Stevie Payne, and Matt Ridlen were all able to see some of their first Varsity action of the season late in the contest.

Nichols pointed out how important picking up this first win was for team morale, but also noted the stiff SEMO Conference competition the ‘Cats faced early.

“It had started to weigh on them a little bit, but at the same time,they’ve gotta look at who they played,” he commented. “[The second game against] Jackson was a winnable game for us, but we just didn’t get it done. I thought we played well in the first game, against Charleston, but Sikeston just handed it to us. It’s good for confidence, that’s for sure.”

The JV squads were able to squeeze in two quarters of play after the Varsity contest. The young ‘Cats were led in scoring by Noble, with six points. Myles Urhan added four, while Devin Hampton, Austin Aldridge, and Drake Mitchell each chipped in three points in the Bearcats‘ 21-13 win.

The Bearcats will be in action again on Tuesday (Dec. 20) night, when they face off against the Scott City Rams in their last contest before the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament.

Nichols noted the Rams’ improvement from last season, and feels his team needs to bring their ‘A-game’ to pick up another W before Christmas Break.

“Scott City is an improved team from last year; they’ve got three kids that can really score from what I’ve seen on tape,” he said. “We’ll have to go over there and really play well to win that game.”

Tip is set for JV action at 6:00 p.m., with Varsity taking the courts at the conclusion of the JV contest.