On Saturday the Dexter Middle School Lady Bearcats hosted a tournament for area 8th grade girls basketball teams at the Bearcat Event Center.  The tournament began at 8 am and had some teams playing their last game at 4 pm.  Along with the Lady Bearcats the tournament also featured the Sikeston Bulldogs, Cape Tigers, Puxico Indians, Charleston Bluejays, Senath Lions and the Cairo Pilots.

In the first game of the tournament on the center court Dexter had to go up against the Senath Lady Lions. 

As the game began it was quickly apparent that the Lions were overmatched.  The Lady 'Cats came out hot scoring 21 points to Senaths 2.  Led by guard Sydney Rogers with seven points, Dexter's offense was hustling offense was too much to handle.  

By halftime the Dexter Lady Bearcats had jumped out to a 33-6 lead.  With such a lead built up it is tough to come out fired up but Dexter didn't slow down in the third quarter as they scored another 16 points to the Lions two. 

The Bearcats rested their startes and gave some of the other girls a chance to get some valuable playing time.  They did well in relief and closed the game out with a 51-12 win to send them into the next round of the tournament to face the Puxico Lady Indians.  Shyann Mosby led the scoring attack with 16 points.  Sydney Rogers had 13 points and Emily Mouser chipped in with eight.

In the Bearcats second game of the day they had to take on a much better Puxico Indians team that had just defeated the Cape Lady Tigers.

As the game began the Bearcats knew they were playing a better team in the Puxico Indians than they faced against Senath.  After the first quarter both teams were playing well as the score was 17-10. 

In the second quarter the Puxico Indians seemed to get all of their points off of the fast break as they were catching the Bearcats defense off guard.  Going into the second quarter, coaches Chad Allen and Eric Sitze made all the right adjustments and helped the 'Cats widen their lead to 25-12 at halftime. In the second half the picked up the pace scoring eight points and playing better on defense limiting Dexters points to 10. In the final quarter Dexter took advantage of their trips to the free throw line, going 5-8 from the charity stripe.

Dexter won the game by the final of 42-28. Harley Allen was 5-6 from the free throw line with 11 points total. Sydney Rogers led all scorers with 13 points and Shyann Mosbey chipped in with nine points.

The 8th grade Lady Bearcats will face the Jackson Lady Indians on Monday Night at T.S. Hill Middle School in the Championship Game at 7:00 P.M.