By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

The game was a rematch of the DHS homecoming two weeks prior; the Mules and Bearcats at the Bearcat Event Center in front of an energetic, capacity crowd.

The only real difference between the two contests was the stakes - part deux was for the 2012 SCAA Championship.

The Bearcats already held a 69-61 victory over the Mules; they concluded the season sweep of their 'next town over' rivals with a 54-40 victory for Dexter's second-straight SCAA Title.

"We jumped out early; I fully expected them to make that run and it be tight at the end. It's been a while since Dexter and Bernie played a game that didn't come down to the wire," Dexter head coach Rob Nichols said. "We were expecting that run, and luckily we were able to maintain that lead."

"I've watched several tapes on [Bernie], and it's always seemed like if you run them man-to-man, they run such good sets on offense that they'll still make shots," Nichols continued. "We tried to stay in a match-up zone and true zone and really tried to make them play and not use sets to score."

Nichols was also quick to compliment the Mules' effort in the scrappy contest.


"There were a lot of loose balls, and our kids were just getting after it. I thought early in the game they scrapped and got those loose balls to set us up for some transition baskets," he said. "Bernie is a great defensive team, and it's not easy to get baskets on those guys by any means."

The Bearcats jumped out to a 13-8 lead after the first quarter, and used a six point second quarter effort from Jake Lee to carry a 28-18 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The Mules got within nine points at the end of the third quarter, but just couldn't keep up with Dexter in the fourth; five more points from Lee and solid defense helped keep the Bearcat lead intact to the final buzzer.

“We really struggled offensively in every aspect tonight. Dexter really had their way with us and we didn’t fight back much at times," Bernie head coach Brad Botsch said. "We really have to play smart basketball to compete with a good team and win, and tonight, we were really careless with the ball. Dexter really put it on us and was in complete control all night."

The Bearcats were led by senior Jake Lee with 16 points and 14 boards; the 6'3" post ended the tournament with double-doubles in all three games.

"Jake...sick, tired, hurt, whatever, he'll always come out and give you 110 percent of what's in his body," Nichols said. " I'm proud of him every game because of how hard he plays; he gets everything out of his body he can get. I'm glad to have him on the team."

The Bearcats were well-represented on the All-Tournament team, with Lee, Tyler Miller, and Chase Young all receiving the honor.

"I was glad to see Chase make the All-Tournament team; that told me people were actually watching the games this week, because he had three excellent games," Nichols commented.

David Baker and Bubby Schwent paced the Mules with 11 points apiece; Sam Turner added 10 points in the loss.