By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

PARK HILLS - Riley Owens dropped in a layup for the Park Hills Central Lady Rebels in the first 30 seconds of Wednesday night's Class 4 Sectional matchup with the Dexter Lady Bearcats - it would be the Rebels only lead for the rest of the night.

Despite a sluggish start, the Lady Bearcats were able to keep their Show Me Showdown hopes alive with a 64-49 victory. Even with playoff experience, head coach Chad Allen attributed his young team's slow start to nerves.

"It looked like we came out a little nervous, which is to be expected a little bit. We tried to rely on Brittany Harris most of the first half, and we weren't very aggressive offensively," he said. "Give Park Hills credit - I thought they came out and really battled hard. I thought conditioning was a big factor, a big key to this game."

Harris was the lifeblood of the Bearcat offense, accounting for over 50 percent of her team's first half points on the way to a 25 point, 14 rebound double-double.

"She put us on her shoulders in the first half," Allen said of the junior. "We got into halftime and talked about it for a little bit, said we couldn't keep relying on Brittany. I thought the girls responded really well, and looked much more aggressive in the second half."

The Lady Bearcats took the lead on a Harris layup at 5:08 in the first, and never gave it back. Alison Jarrell knocked down a three late in the first to push the 'Cats to a 15-11 advantage.

Briley Merritt hit a trey for Park Hills at the 5:15 mark in the second, but Jarrell answered on the next possession. A three point play from Mackenzie Jones pulled the Rebels within one with just over 40 seconds left in the half, but Erika Cobb buried a three to put DHS up by four at the half.

The Lady Bearcats, much like in Friday's Class 4, District 1 Championship game against Notre Dame, came out with another level of intensity on the defensive side of the court in the third quarter.

"[Our defense was great], especially in that third quarter; we limited them to four points," Allen said of the second-half defensive resurgence. "I thought we really got after it defensively, and a lot of it came down to conditioning. We wore Park Hills down, especially going up and down the floor so much in the first half, and I thought that was the biggest key to our win tonight."

A layup from Harris and trey from Hannah Noe sparked the Lady Bearcats' offense in the second half, and a deep two from Mollie Whitehead late in the frame nudged the 'Cats to a 49-34 advantage heading into the fourth.

Katelynn Frazier dropped in four points in the fourth quarter, and had a chance for a three point play, but just missed the free throw. Jarrell knocked down her third trey of the contest at the 3:45 mark, and the Lady 'Cats were able to run their delay game for the rest of the contest to take the 64-49 win.

Owens and Skaggs combined 34 of the Rebels' 49 points in the contest. Allen noted the duo as his squad's defensive focus in the game.

"We talked about them all week, about how we were going to limit them," he said. "Owens is so hard to stop - one on one, she's so hard to stop. She's a good shooter, and she's very fast - I'd say she was as fast as [Summer] Burger from Notre Dame, just a lot bigger. It was tough for our guards to handle her, but they did a good job."

With the win, the Lady 'Cats will advance to the quarterfinal round of the MSHSAA Class 4 bracket, where the will face off against Miller Career Academy - Miller picked up a 69-56 win over Pacific in their sectional matchup. The Phoenix were able to hand the Lady 'Cats their first loss of the season in the finals of the Farmington Invitational Tournament on Dec. 3.

"They're big, and last time we played them we got beat by 17," Allen said. "We didn't play well that game, so hopefully this time we can give them a better game. There's no doubt in my mind that we can beat them, but we'll have to be much more aggressive offensively."

The Bearcats and Phoenix will rematch on Saturday, March 3 at the Farmington Civic Center. The winner of the contest will move on to the final four and play in the Show Me Showdown, held at Mizzou Arena.

Tipoff is set for 6:00 p.m.

The Dexter Middle School 'boys of spring' are ready to take the field for another season of baseball.

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

The Dexter Lady Bearcats, fresh off their second straight Class 4, District 1 title, are hitting the road tonight to take on the Park Hills Central Lady Rebels in MSHSAA Sectional action.

The Lady 'Cats have been hard at work preparing for the 20-7 Lady Rebels since their big win on Friday night over rival Notre Dame.

"We've just been working on preparing for Park Hills, going over all their offensive plays," LBB head coach Chad Allen said after Tuesday's practice. "They are pretty skilled offensively. They shoot well from the perimeter, they have a couple girls that are pretty quick and can take you off the dribble. They don't have a lot of size, but they are really scrappy and like to get after you."

"They'll definitely be a tough team," he added. "We'll have to show up and be ready to play."

This year's Lady Rebel squad is quite similar to the Lady Bearcats from last year - several of their key contributors are freshman, and they flew under the radar on their way to the Class 4, District 2 championship.

"They're young, just like us. They have a freshman point guard, Mackenzie Jones, and she's really composed and really tough. You wouldn't think she was a freshman based on how she plays," Allen noted. "Sydney Skaggs, a 5'10" freshman, she's long and lean and very active. She's a great shooter, and both of them are good players. It's like our girls were last year - they improved so much over the course of the season, and that's what these girls have done."

"They lost four games early on, and really started improving as a team. A lot of that was getting those freshman experience, which is the same thing that happened to us last year," he continued. "They're getting experience, and it's definitely paying off."

The roles will be reversed in the sectional matchup from last season, when the Lady Bearcats took on a seasoned Farmington squad. This time, the Lady Bearcats are the seasoned veterans, while Park Hills enters the playoffs for the first time since the 2006-2007 season.

"I think that helps. I always feel that getting experience in playoff games will help you the next year," Allen said. "For us, getting in that sectional game last year, it was a learning experience. Farmington put it on us, but they had a lot of experience and seniors on that team last year. Heading into sectional play this year, we've got that experience from last year, and hopefully it will help us get through this game."

Tipoff is set for 6:00 p.m. from Bob Sechrest Field House on the campus of Mineral Area College.

If you can't make it to the game, you can get quarterly score updates (cell phone signal permitting) on our Facebook or Twitter pages!

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

HAYTI - The Bernie Mules kicked off the 2012 Class 2, District 1 tournament with a bang on Monday night, as they dismantled the Senath-Hornersville Lions in a 72-24 blowout.

The Mules buried three treys in the first quarter - two from Troy Kirkpatrick and one from Sam Turner - on their way to a 16-4 lead after the opening frame.

The second quarter saw the Lions put together their highest scoring effort of the game, but Bernie's tenacious defense held them to nine points. A nine point effort from David Baker capped off a 20 point second quarter to give Bernie a 36-13 lead at the half.

The Mules were hot-handed again in the third quarter, with treys from Kirkpatrick and B.J. Jennings. Baker put together a 10 point effort for a 58-18 Bernie advantage moving into the fourth.

Despite the running clock the Mules were still able to drop 14 points in the fourth quarter, thanks in part to threes from Kirkpatrick and Matt Vernon, on their way to the lopsided 72-24 final score.

Kody Wright led the Lions with six points in the contest.

Baker paced the Mules with 27 points; Kirkpatrick and Turner rounded out Mules in double figures with 18 and 11 respective points.

“It was a good start to the post-season," head coach Brad Botsch said. "I thought our guys came out and played very hard on the defensive end and had the right mindset from the get-go."

The Mules will advance to the semifinals, where they take on the Holcomb Hornets; it will be the third time this season the Mules and Hornets have met, and Bernie holds a 2-1 advantage on the season series.

"We now need two really solid practices to get ready for a very good and well-coached team in Holcomb, Botsch noted.”

The Mules and Hornets are set to meet in Class 2, District 1 Semifinal action on Thursday night at Hayti High School; tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Photo Above:
Head coach Brad Botsch addresses the Mules during a timeout in the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament. (SMT file photo by Andrew Cato)

POPLAR BLUFF - Veronica Amos made the most of her return to southeast Missouri.

Playing just an hour from her home in Kennett, Amos scored 25 points and pulled down 13 rebounds to lead the Crowder Lady Riders to an 86-70 win over the Three Rivers Lady Raiders in a Region XVI contest Saturday afternoon at the Bess Activity Center.

“She’s a good kid,” Three Rivers coach Jeff Walk said. “I think the Kennett kids were sitting behind her bench cheering her on and she was wanting to do well for her (hometown) kids. She had a good ballgame and you can’t take nothing away from a kid when they have good ballgames.”

Despite the big game from Amos, the Lady Raiders (9-19, XVI) still made a run at pulling the upset and avenging a 37-point loss from weeks ago, trailing just 75-70 after Alex Hower drained a 3-pointer with two minutes left in the game. However, Three Rivers did not score again and the Lady Riders closed the game on an 11-0 run.

“I don’t know if you’d call it run out of gas,” said Walk. “It was such an uphill battle that it was too big of an uphill battle to overcome. We’d make runs at them and make runs at them, then we’d shoot ourselves in the foot. We’ve got to stop having those turnovers at those key times and get to where we can get through that.”

The Lady Raiders played a strong first half, taking a 35-33 lead on Tara Porter’s basket near the 2:11 mark of the first half, but Amos scored 21 seconds later to tie the score at 35, then four straight free throws from Jordan Ritter and Amos put Crowder ahead for good at 39-35 with less than a minute left in the half.

Amos’ field goal with less than three and a half minutes left in the game gave the Lady Riders a 75-65 lead, but Three Rivers answered one last time as Tazonda Gibbs hit a pair of free throws and Hower drained her trey to make it a 75-70 game before the tank ran out.

“We played with them and we battled with them,” Walk said. “We’ve got to just dig in a little bit deeper, get through those hard times and stop making those mental mistakes.”

Whitney Mills led the Lady Raiders with 23 points, while Gibbs added 14 and Porter finished with 13.

Joining Amos in double figures for Crowder were Tarai Sadler with 14 points, while Caprese Marshall tossed in 11 and Jordan Hunter chipped in 10.

Three Rivers concludes the regular season next week with road trips to Jefferson (Wednesday) and Iowa Western (next Saturday) before starting Region XVI Tournament play March 8 at Jefferson City.

“Anything can happen,” said Walk. “You just never know with the group of kids we have.”