By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

BROSELEY - It was a tale of two halves in the semifinal matchup of the Lady Royals Christmas Classic between the Lady Bearcats and Neelyville Lady Tigers. The Lady ‘Cats struggled shooting the ball early - they flirted with 25% from the floor in the first half - but an offensive explosion in the second half was enough to lift the No. 1 Lady ‘Cats to a 78-47 win over No. 4 Neelyville.

“We didn’t shoot the ball very well in the first half. I don’t know what our percentage was, but it definitely wasn’t the best shooting game we’ve had in the first half,” LBB head coach Chad Allen said after the game. “In the second half, I thought we came out and shot the ball a lot better - it picked our overall percentage up quite a bit. I thought our girls basically wore down Neelyville. You could tell in the second half when we jumped on them early that they were definitely tired.”

The Bearcats’ offensive surge in the early second half was aided by a 14 point effort in the third quarter from Hannah Noe, who knocked down six trey’s and had 30 points in the contest. It was the Lady ‘Cats’ third game without the services of Alison Jarrell, who is still dealing with bruised ribs from the Dec. 15 contest against Sikeston.


“With having Alison out right now, in a way, it may help us because some girls will have to step up,” Allen said of the Bearcats‘ three-point ace. “Hannah Noe did that tonight - I believe she had 30 points.”

The Tigers did a good job of slowing down Dexter’s one-two punch of Paige Patterson and Brittany Harris. The duo combined for just 19 points in the contest.

“Neelyville did a really good job in their inside defense in the first half. They really bumped Paige and Brittany around in there, and made it tough for us to get any inside position at all,” Allen continued. “Hannah stepped up and knocked down a lot of shots for us and it made the difference in the game.”

Neelyville did a good job of breaking up the the Lady Bearcats’ press early, but Allen’s squad made some adjustments at halftime and eventually won the turnover battle by a 21-6 margin.

“That’s what we want to try to do with teams this year; we want to pressure full court, wear them down, and make conditioning a factor. It definitely paid off tonight,” Allen said. “I didn’t feel like we were pressuring the ball very well in the first half, and they were throwing it over the top. I thought we did a much better job of pressuring the ball up front in our full-court press in the second half, and we ended up getting some steals and converting those steals into points.”

The Lady ‘Cats have been able to keep on the winner’s side of the bracket for the second straight year, and again have done it with an extremely young team.


Last year, the Lady ‘Cats took home third place with a team that started three freshman and two sophomores, and had just one senior on the bench. This year, Dexter’s roster consists of six sophomores and two juniors, but the team is playing like a squad chock-full of veteran leadership.

“Our girls were definitely extremely young last year, and got a lot of varsity experience,” Allen said. “You could tell that, with a little age, an extra year, and more experience, that these girls are really starting to go to the next level. Hopefully we’ll keep getting better as this year goes.”


The No. 1 Lady Bearcats will face off against the No. 2 Kennett Indians in the tournament finals. The Tribe advanced to their second-straight championship game with a 53-34 win over the No. 6 NMCC Eagles, who the Lady ‘Cats beat 94-20 when they met earlier in the season.


Tipoff for the championship game of the Lady Royals Christmas Classic is set for tonight at 7:30 p.m.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Vanderbilt controlled the action from the opening tip, cruising to an 89-58 win on Tuesday evening at Memorial Gym. The Commodores, who led Lafayette wire to wire in the contest, were paced by John Jenkins' 27-point effort.

Vanderbilt (8-4) opened with a 17-6 run on 7-of-9 shooting and never really looked back, pulling away for a 29-point victory.

With 6:19 showing on the clock, Lafayette put together a 7-0 spurt, capped by Les Smith's pull-up trey, cutting the deficit to 26-15. Lafayette held the home side without a bucket for a little more than nine minutes of game action, before Jenkins connected on one of his game-high seven three-pointers at the 3:05 mark.

Lafayette (4-7) cut Vanderbilt's lead to eight points on a jumper from Rob Delaney, just before the Jenkins' triple, but the Commodores scored five straight to take a 39-24 lead into the break.

Five minutes into the second half, Ryan Willen's three-point play pulled Lafayette within 14 points, but Vanderbilt responded with a 17-5 run, pushing the lead to 26 points with 10:46 to play. Willen hit two three's surrounding Lance Goulbourne's layup to make it a 20-point game. Lafayette didn't get any closer.

Seth Hinrichs, three-time Patriot League Rookie of the Week, contributed a team-high 16 points and has scored in double figures in three straight games.

Dexter native Alan Flannigan was able to haul in a defensive rebound during his seven minutes of play in the contest.

Lafayette returns to action on Dec. 28, hosting Monmouth at 7 p.m. The Hawks are currently 2-9 (0-2 NEC) on the season.

For a full breakdown of the game's stats, click here.

ShowMe Scoreboard, 12.21.2011

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

SCOTT CITY - Poor free throw shooting has been the deciding factor in basketball games throughout the sport’s history. One of the newest addition to the list can be the Bearcats’ performance against the Scott City Rams on Tuesday (Dec. 21) night, where the ‘Cats were an abysmal 8 for 23 (0 for 6 in the fourth quarter alone) from the charity stripe in a 65-62 loss.

“We got in a free throw shooting contest with them, and we aren’t going to win many of those at this point,” head coach Rob Nichols said after the game. “Did we play well? No. Were we ready to play? No. Mentally, I don’t think we were. We got beat by the better team tonight.”


The ‘Cats jumped out to a quick 12-6 lead midway through the first quarter before the Rams clawed back within three at the end of the frame. The game was closely officiated, with each team having players in foul trouble and being in double-bonus at the end of the first quarter.

Brad Potts hit a quick jumper to open the second quarter, but Ryan Brock completed an old-fashioned three point play at the 5:30 mark to give the Rams their first lead of the contest.

The Rams went on to score 14 unanswered points until Tyler Miller dropped in a layup at the 1:40 mark. Miller went on to hit a three in the last minute of the quarter to bring the score to 39-30 in favor of the Rams heading into halftime.

The Bearcats’ outside shooting picked up during the third quarter, with Chase Young and Cody Neldon knocking down threes to pull Dexter within six at the 2:00 mark. Miller picked up his fourth foul early in the frame, and didn’t play for the majority of the third. The Rams were able to hold on to a six point, 52-46 lead after the third quarter.

The Rams opened the fourth with a 8-2 run before Miller knocked down a three at the 3:00 mark. Jake Lee drew a charge to help the Bearcats chip the Rams’ lead down to 60-57 with 2:00 left in the game.

Miller hit another trey at the 1:20 mark, followed quickly by a 10-footer from Jordan Fitts to bring the score to 64-62. Nichols called a timeout with :15 left in the contest to draw up the Bearcats’ last play.

Lee was fouled on the next play to send him to the line for a pair of free throws. After missing the first, Lee rebounded his own miss on the second shot and was fouled for two more free throws. After missing both shots, the ‘Cats quickly had to foul Zach Cotner to stop the clock with two seconds left. Cotner knocked down one of his two free throws to seal the 65-62 win for the Rams.

“At this point, I”m not even worried about [the loss]; I’m more disappointed in our lack of composure, and I want to apologize for some of the things I saw out on the court,” Nichols said of his squad. “I don’t know if everyone else saw it, but that’s not the way we need to act out on the court. Win or lose, that’s the biggest thing I’m disappointed in.”

The JV squad was able to pick up their first regulation win of the season with a 47-26 victory. Stevie Payne paced the young ‘Cats with 19 points, while Jacob Murdock finished with six and Blake Horton with five.


The ‘Cats won’t be in action again until the 55th annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament, where the earned the No. 5 seed, when they take on No. 12 South Pemiscot on Monday (Dec. 26).

“Right now I just hope we can go out and be positive people on the floor; play hard, not show negative emotion,” Nichols said of the upcoming matchup. “If we can do that, maybe wins and losses can start to take care of itself, but at this point, I’m more worried about that.”


Tip is set for 2:30 p.m. from Bloomfield High School.

ShowMe Scoreboard, 12.21.2011