Calling Monday’s 86-81 loss to Lewis and Clark a nightmare for the Three Rivers Lady Raiders would not be a stretch at all.

Why so?

Just moments after tipoff, forward Carolyn Overton took a hard fall and did not return for precautionary reasons, leaving the Lady Raiders without one of its top offensive threats;
Three Rivers then went scoreless from the field for the game’s first four minutes before Whitney Mills drained a 3-pointer to end the drought – but by then the Lady Trailblazers had seized the lead and the momentum;
Last but certainly not least, point guard Alex Hower went down with a knee injury in the closing minutes of the first half and did not return.

While the Lady Raiders rallied to tie the score late in the game, they never could get over the hump against Lewis and Clark.

“Words cannot explain,” Three Rivers coach Jeff Walk said with a rueful laugh. “You would just have had to be here to know what I mean.”

While Overton is day-to-day, Hower is having a MRI Tuesday and her status for the remainder is uncertain.

Losing the duo had a huge impact Monday night.

“When the kids saw Carolyn go down and saw Alex go down, that was a lot to overcome psychologically,” said Walk. “But the kids that were left, I’m super proud of them.”

The bad times started Monday with Overton’s injury right after tipoff.

“We lost our leading scorer and leading rebounder seconds into the game,” Walk said. “You can pretty well guess how that affected us.”

Overton’s loss may have triggered the Lady Raiders’ offensive funk, as the Lady Trailblazers held Three Rivers scoreless for the game’s first 4:02 and raced out to a 12-3 lead.

The Lady Raiders (6-8) battled back, cutting the deficit to 16-12 on Abby Ivie’s bucket with 13:05 left in the first half, but Lewis and Clark scored nine straight points and went up 25-12 on Latrice Taylor’s three-point play with 10:39 remaining in the opening session – and the Lady Blazers led 43-31 at the half.

“The first 10 minutes of this game was almost identical to the first 10 minutes of the second half of the Mineral Area game,” said Walk. “We finally got through that fog and then finally started playing. But the ballgame was lost in the first 10 minutes – but the kids never gave up.”

Indeed they didn’t.

Tara Porter’s 3-pointer cut the deficit to 71-68 with 4:50 to go in the contest, and Monae Riley’s trey near the 3:26 mark tied the game at 73. However, Lewis and Clark retook the lead, and though Abbie Warren’s free throws cut that lead to 81-79 with 48.1 seconds left, the Lady Raiders could not complete the comeback.

“Granted we didn’t win this, but I am so proud of the way they battled second half,” Walk said. “We didn’t have a point guard on the floor the entire second half and the last few minutes of the first half. In one timeout I can remember telling them they were all point guards. Forty-six rebounds – we outrebounded them – but even after losing our leading scorer, we still scored 81 points.”

Mills led Three Rivers with 27 points, while Riley added 10 off the bench.

Claudette Maurice paced the Lady Trailblazers with 28 points, while Brascia Audain added 19, Taylor chipped in 14 and Monique Rigsby finished with 11.

The Lady Raiders are back in action Thursday when they travel to Shawnee. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. in Ullin, Ill.

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

BLOOMFIELD - The Dexter Bearcats and Bloomfield Wildcats met in another Stoddard County Conference matchup on Tuesday night. The Bearcats took control of the contest early, and despite a late surge from Bloomfield went on to take a 61-46 victory.

Tyler Miller knocked in seven of the Bearcats’ 14 unanswered points to open the contest. The senior led Dexter with 23 points in the game.

”Right off the bat, the first few times he touched the ball, he drove the baseline and got layups,” DHS head coach Rob Nichols said of Miller. “He’s a good athlete, and when he attacks the rim and uses his athleticism he’s a really good player. It’s a welcome sight to see him do that tonight.”

“We started out pretty well, but we still struggled offensively early in the game. We guarded pretty well and got some turnovers, and that gave us some points,” Nichols continued. “Defense is where we really had a lot of intensity early in the game.”

Chase Young and Jordan Fitts both completed three point plays for the ‘Cats in the second quarter, but the Wildcats crept within six points at the 3:00 mark. Miller buried a deep three with just over a minute left in the half, and the Bearcat press forced a 10 second call on the ensuing inbounds pass to take a 29-18 lead into halftime.

Miller picked up a three point play early in the second half; Dexter’s defense continued to play well, with Young picking up two steals in the third quarter to help the Bearcats to a 47-25 advantage.

Tom Sanders drained a three for Bloomfield to open the fourth quarter and help pull the Wildcats back within 17 at the 6:50 mark, but the Bearcats responded with a seven point run.

The Bearcats transitioned into their delay game at the 1:30 mark, but the Wildcats were able to put up six points in the last 30 seconds of the contest to bring the final score to 61-46 in favor of the Bearcats.

“I think we lost focus at different points in the game tonight, but we did a good job when they made a run and got the crowd into it a little bit,” Nichols said. “The kids went down, got a few stops and went down and got good possessions on offense.”

“We had a little letdown there at the end,” he added. “We were trying to work on our delay game, but we had a few miscues, some sloppy stuff, but other than at the end of the game, I thought we handled it pretty well.”

In the JV contest, the Bearcats exploded out to a 37-13 lead at the half, and played great defense throughout the contest.

The JV Wildcats’ eight point effort in the second quarter was their best of the night, and the JV Bearcats picked up a 55-21 victory.

The ‘Cats will be back in action on Friday, when they face off against the Bernie Mules on Homecoming night. Nichols noted his team’s determination and focus on the county-heavy schedule leading up to the annual Stoddard County Tournament.

“What we’re looking at right now is our Stoddard County Conference play. We’ve got Bernie on Friday night, and Puxico coming up, then a game with New Madrid and it’s straight into the county tournament,” he said. “That’s what we’re looking at right now; the kids know that it’s important to them, and it’s important to the community; it’s what we’re focused in on right now.”

Tipoff for the Homecoming matchup is set for 6:00 p.m. from the Bearcat Event Center.

There have been a few changes to LBB's schedule when they take on Neelyville on Thursday night.

ShowMe Scoreboard, 1.09.2012

Games played Monday, January  9, 2012

High School Boys

• Sikeston 76, DeSoto 73
• Perryville 81, Eldorado 30

High School Girls

• Dexter 56, Kennett 26
• Meadow Heights 76, Lesterville 52
• Notre Dame 62, Farmington 57
• Chaffee 53, East Prairie 43
• Charleston 65, Kelly 47
• Jackson 47, DeSoto 32
• Senate-Hornersville 56, Malden 48 

NCAA Men

• Cincinnati 68, Georgetown 64
• Connecticut 64, West Virginia 57
• Oklahoma State 72, Oklahoma 65

NCAA Women

• East Kentucky 62, Murray State 61
• Tennessee Tech 80, Tennessee State 71

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

The Lady Bearcats picked up another blowout win in their return home on Monday night. The ‘Cats downed the Kennett Lady Indians 56-26 in their second meeting of the 2011-2012 season.

Paige Patterson and Brittany Harris were given the task of shutting down the Tribe’s potent Audrey Wynne, who dropped 27 points on the Bearcats in the Lady Royals Christmas Classic.

Patterson and Harris delivered in a big way, holding Wynne to just nine points in the contest.


“I thought Paige and Brittany did a great job tonight switching off on Wynne and limiting her touches; last time we played them, she had 27 points, and tonight, she had nine,” LBB head coach Chad Allen said after the game. “A few of those points, I’d typically refer to as ‘garbage points’ where the ball just bounced to her.”

“The past few days, we’ve been working hard on a game plan to try and stop [Audrey] Wynne and trying to put a lot of pressure on [Darby] Sparks in the full-court press,” Allen added. “I thought the girls executed that really well. We really tried to take the ball out of Sparks’ hands, and I think that threw them off offensively.”

The Lady ‘Cats played outstanding defense all night, and held the Tribe to single-digit scores in each frame of the contest. The ‘Cats struggled shooting the ball at times throughout the game, but their potent defense kept the Indians in check.

“The girls did a really good job tonight defensively. Offensively, we didn’t shoot the ball very well; I thought we came out flat, especially in the second quarter when we only had six points,” Allen said. “We didn’t have a lot of energy; I thought we took too many perimeter shots and didn’t try to get it inside like we did in the first quarter.”

The Lady ‘Cats opened the game with a 16-2 run that spanned the entire first quarter and part of the second, but the Tribe rattled off nine unanswered points to cut Dexter’s lead to 16-11 at the 1:15 mark of the second quarter. Mollie Whitehead picked up a loose ball and dumped it to Harris for a layup at the buzzer to send the ‘Cats into halftime with a 22-11 lead.

The Lady ‘Cats continued to bombard the Tribe throughout the second half, aided by a 12 point effort from Harris, and five point efforts from both Alison Jarrell and Patterson in the fourth quarter.

Despite a late surge by the Indians, the Lady ‘Cats were still able to take home another victory with a 30 point-plus margin. Allen noted a few areas of concern with his team’s offensive performance, but was pleased overall.

“We came out with some different sets that we didn’t run in the first half, but we got out to a 6-0 run to open the second half. I thought we executed offensively well then, but then we started standing around again,” he said. “We need to learn to keep playing offensively, to keep moving and setting screens. We just didn’t have a lot of energy tonight, offensively.”

The Lady ‘Cats move to 12-2 with the victory, and will be in action again Thursday, when they face Neelyville in their last home contest before a four game road trip.

“It’s another good team; Neelyville is just as good as Kennett, if not better,” Allen said. “They’re a little quicker, and it will probably be more of a fast-paced game. We’re going to have to go to the game film and see how to take some things away from them.”

Tipoff for the game is pushed back to 6:30 p.m., as the Freshman Boys team has a contest with Poplar Bluff set for 5:00.