Farmington, MO - The Dexter Lady Bearcats advanced to the finals of the 48th annual Farmington Invitational Tournament with a 67-28 win over the Poplar Bluff Lady Mules on Friday night.

Both teams started out slowly with a number of turnovers before Hannah Noe broke the scoring ice for Dexter with a basket a little over two minutes into the game.  After a basket by Samantha Gatewood of Poplar Bluff, the Lady Cats went on a 6 to 0 run with two free throws by Paige Patterson and two baskets by Brittnay Harris.  After three points by Poplar Bluff, another basket by Harris made the score 10-5 at the end of the first quarter.

The Lady Cats really opened by the offense in the second quarter.  Erika Cobb made two free throws and a basket to open the quarter. Hannah Now then made two free throws after being fouled while shooting, which were two of her ten points in the quarter.  Sandwiched between some oh Noe's points were the first four points of the varsity career of Melaine McKuin.  Two of these came on a nice jump shot and two came on a drive to the basket.  Finally, he quarter ended with two baskets by Brittnay Harris (15 points on the night) and the Lady Cats had a 33-9 halftime lead.

The second half started with basket by Patterson and then it started to"rain threes" in the Dexter offense.  Allison Jarrell made two, Hannah Noe made one and Erika Cobb made the other and suddenly he Lady Cats had a 47-12 lead. Harris had two more baskets in the quarter, Cobb had two more (for four of her fifteen points) and Katelynn Frazier had her only two points of the night.

The fourth quarter featured a "mercy rule" running clock as the Lady Cats were up by more the thirty points.  The highlight of the fourth quarter was Dakota Reynolds scoring her fist two points as a Lady Bearcat.  Dexter played outstanding defense all night, something that please Coach Chad Allen. 

"Anytime you force a good team like Poplar Bluff into 24 turnovers on the night, you have played well defensively", he commented.  "They pretty sharp tonight."

Also not to be overlooked were the 6 assists by Katelynn Frazier and three assists by Mollie Whitehead on some outstanding passes.

The Lady Cats play for the championship on Saturday night in Farmington against Miller Career Academy.  Miller Career was the team that defeated the Lady Bearcats last season in the State Quarterfinal game by a score of 51 to 34.

"They only lost one player so they have their main core of their team back," noted Coach Allen.  "The one girl they graduated actually went to play at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock so they have the majority of their team back."

"They will be really good as they are a big, physical team," added Allen.

"We just have to get after them like we did tonight and we can wear them down,' say Allen.  "We simply need to make conditioning a factor in the game and get them in the third and fourth quarter."

Join the Lady 'Cats for their game in Farmington.  If you are unable to make the trip, tune into Jim Reiker as he brings you all the action on Life Radio 90.3 KLUH.  Game time will begin at 6:30 PM tomorrow evening.