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Campbell, Missouri - The Benie Mules continue their winning ways as they capture the championship of the Campbell Invitational Tournament by defeating the Holcomb Hornets in an exciting overtime victory by a final score of 54 to 52. 

“It sure wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win,” commented Coach Brad Botsch after the game. 

The Mules entered the contest as the favorites but knew the Hornets would present a challenge in the championship match.  With an undefeated record of 2-0 on the season, there were high hopes for a championship in Friday nights game.

“Holcomb is very well-coached and is always tough to play against,” added Botsch.

Holcomb jumped out to a big lead in the first quarter lead by Jamie Massey, who posted 5-points.  The Hornets finished the quarter with a 12 to 4 lead over the Mules.

But the Mules rallied in the second quarter offensively posting 24-points to overcome the deficit of the first quarter.  They regained the lead in the game at halftime by a score of 28 to 26. 

B J Jennings, Troy Kirkpatrick and Sam Turner held the hot shooting hand from 3-point land with Jennings adding two and Kirkpatrick and Turner each adding one. 

James Vance helped teammate Jamie Massey by putting up 3 field goals in the third quarter to help the Hornets tie the game at the end of the third with 41 points for each team.  The see-saw battle raged throughout the final quarter and fans were well aware the game would come down to a shootout. 

Cameron Clark for the Hornets hit a key three-pointer in the fourth quarter.  Bernie answered by matching the Hornets with eight points during the quarter.  Landon Woods hit a key free throw allowing at tie score at the end of regulation.

Sam Turner and David Baker combined for 5 points in the overtime period to capture the win for the Bernie Mules with the final score of 54 to 52.

“We really struggled to execute offensively and made so many poor decisions with the ball,” noted Botsch.  “However, our kids played so hard the entire game and found a way to get the job done.” 

The game met all expectations for both teams’ fans.  Coach Botsch commented that “Everyone in the stands got their money’s worth tonight, that’s for sure.”

Both coaches will be preparing for their teams next opportunity to meat later on this season.  The Bernie Mules will be at home this next Tuesday when they take on the Scott City Rams. 

Sikeston- In their first road game of the young season, the Dexter Bearcats traveled east to Sikeston Friday night and found themselves on the short end of a 55-23 score. With 3 starters out due to injuries, the Bearcats turned the ball over 9 times in just the first quarter, allowing Sikeston to establish an early lead from which they were never shaken.  Dexter had some success with trying to control the tempo of the game and slow things down a little, but Bearcat Brad Potts sank the only basket for the visitors in the first quarter, which ended with the host team on top 21-2.

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.

Campbell, Missouri - Bernie High School’s basketball team takes yet another victory to add to their brand new season. On Thursday, November 29^th, the Bernie Mules faced the Twin Rivers Royals in the Campbell Tournament. The Mules took the win with a final score of 74 to 63 during the varsity game.

During the first quarter, Bernie barely took the lead but pulled through with the final score of first quarter at 16 to 15. The team knew they had to step up their defense if they were going to pull a win out from under Twin Rivers, so they began focusing their energy defensively as well as offensively. During the second quarter, Bernie found their groove on Campbell’s floors and quickly got back in the swing of things with a score of 32 to 25. The third quarter was still action packed but the Mules once again pulled farther ahead, slowly inching their way to victory with a score of 53 to 43. In the fourth quarter, Bernie continued to keep a ten point gap between them and their opponent, ending the game at 74 to 63.

Senior David Baker (#31) was the lead scorer for the Mules, gaining 22 of the 74 points by the end of the night. This is Baker’s last year of high school basketball and he is intent on keeping a shiny record throughout the season. Eric Ray from Twin Rivers was a tough rival, earning the Royals 21 of their 63 points, requiring the Mules to step up their defensive once again to keep a steady score. BJ Jennings, a Bernie Mule, scored 15 points while his teammate Bubby Schwent scored 12, helping lead their team to the victory they claimed last night.

Bernie’s current record is 2-0 and although Twin Rivers was a tough match, they pushed themselves to a whole new level to keep a spotless record thus far. Brad Botsch, Bernie’s head coach, believes that this will be a triumphant season for the Mules if they continue to work hard and build on their defense.

“We grinded out a win,” Botsch explained. “This was a very physical game that may not have been pretty, but we found a way to get the job done. Twin Rivers played hard and Coach Benson does a nice job with his kids. I thought we were on our heels defensively all night, and we’ll have to play much better if we want to beat a very good Holcomb club tomorrow.”

The Bernie Mules will be spending a third night at the Campbell Tournament and will be facing the Holcomb Hornets tonight at 8:30pm. So, put on some blue and support the Mules as they fight for that third win tonight.

Cape Girardeau, Missouri - Coach James Sneed of the Dexter Bearcat Wrestling program was proud to report the success of his wrestlers tonight as they traveled to Cape to take on the Notre Dame Bulldogs.  With the season in it's early stages, the Bearcats had a great showing Thursday night winning the dual by 78 to 18.

The team had top performances by several Bearcats including pins by James Mullins in the 120 pound weight class, Russell Dean in the 132 pound weight class, Ethan Stevens in the 145 pound weight class, and Damian Glasener  in the heavy weight division.  Trevor Waldner and Storm Massey also had a great matches winning by decision over the Notre Dames in the 138 and 126 pound weight class respectively.

Making weight is often a challenge in the early part of the season, but the Bearcats were able to fill all classes except the 106 pound division which was donated by forfeit to Notre Dame.  Notre Dame was unable to provide wrestlers for five of their weight divisions.