Written by
Jessica Snider, SMT Writer
With the intensity of the Stoddard County Tournament heating up, the Dexter Bearcats will have tough competition tomorrow night as they take on the Advance Hornets.
Dexter will be coming off a huge victory over Woodland Monday night as is Advance with their huge win over the Richland Rebels. Both Dexter and Advance rolled through the first night of the tournament with big victories of at least thirty-points.
Both teams are feeling confident about victory, but only one team will be able to continue on in the tournament.
With the County Tournament being single-elimination, the pressure is put on both teams even harder.
The Dexter Bearcats had a rough start to the season, but have proved their talent each game. The Bearcats take each competition as a new oppurtunity for victory. Coach Rob Nichols and the Dexter Bearcat team are looking to be back-to-back Stoddard County Tournament First-Place Champions!
With their eyes set on first place, they must first get through tomorrow night's tough competition against the Hornets. The Advance team has posted an impressive record this year and have no trouble on the offensive side of things.
Tomorrow night's game is set for 7:00 P.M. in the Bloomfield gymnasium. It is sure to be an exciting game as both teams are badly wanting the victory.
Good luck to both teams!
Written by
Dee Loflin, SMT Writer
Bernie, Missouri – The Bernie Mules traveled once again to Bloomfield, Missouri to compete in the Stoddard County Athletic Association Tournament Tuesday evening.
The number one seed Mules were ready to kick the Cubs back to Bell City as they overpowered them by 27 points.
With four Bernie players hitting double digits on the night, the Mules were just unstoppable building their record to 15 – 3 on the season.
David Baker (#31) led the Mules with 20 points. Troy Kirkpatrick (#14) had 18 points for the night with Sam Turner (#45) at 15 points. B.J. Jennings (#12) hit the basket for total 12 points.
Mules Coach Brad Botsch of Bernie commented, “I thought Bell City really has improved a lot since the first time we played them.”
“We have high expectations for ourselves defensively, and I felt our kids lacked focus and toughness on the defensive side of the ball tonight,” continued Botsch.
As the boys headed to the locker room at half-time the score was Bernie 44, Bell City 28. Bernie was able to score 26 points in the 3rd quarter which sealed the win. Final score Bernie 86 Bell City 59.
Botsch went on to say, “We will really have to get ourselves ready if we are going to beat Bloomfield on their home floor Thursday night.”
They return to the SCAA Tournament on Thursday night to take on the Wildcats at 8:30 p.m. This should be a real treat to see as these two schools battle for a chance to compete on Friday night in the Championship game. Bloomfield had a very exciting night beating Puxico in triple overtime.
The Bernie Mules JV team has also increased their winning record to 15 - 1 and will play Advance on Thursday at 5:30 in the SCAA Tournament.
A low scoring first quarter, Puxico stepped out to gain a slim margin of only 2-point over Bloomfield. With a strong defensive performance by both teams, Puxico spread their 4 field goals over four members of their team. The Wildcats Brett Ruch got started on his scoring spree by capturing 4 of his game total of 31-points.
Puxico continued to maintain a slight lead of Bloomfield in the second period going in at halftime with a 21 to 14 score. The Indians Zack Tucker had the hot hand scoring 6-points. The Wildcats were only able to find eight points in the quarter.
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Ruch came out after halftime and dropped in 6-points for the Wildcats, outscoring Puxico by 1-point on the quarter. With a 31 to 25 lead, it appeared that the number five seeded Indians were well positioned for an upset over the number four seeded Bloomfield Wildcats. But the Wildcats had other ideas for the outcome of this contest with strong performances by Brett Ruch, Caleb Baker and Zac Goode. Ruch added 8-points, while Baker contributed 6-points and Goode kicked in a three-pointer to tie the game at 47 by the end of regulation.
The same trio for the Wildcats continued their dominant performance throughout all overtime periods with Bloomfield pulling away in the third overtime by 6-points to take the win.
"I'm really proud of our guys for battling a very good Puxico team tonight," noted head coach Jason Karnes. "We never could get much going until the end, and we were fortunate we made a couple of shots to extend the game."
"We had some guys really step up in key situations, both offensively and defensively, to give us the opportunity to play in the semi-finals on Thursday," added Karnes.
Bloomfield will take on the number one seed Bernie Mules in the final game on Thursday night. Game time is 8:30 and will prove to be a great contest.
The final score was not reflection of the overall game as the junior varsity Cubs kept the game close in the opening quarters. The Bearcats were only able to find a 3-point lead at the end of the first quarter and only led at half time by a score of 20 to 14.
A low scoring half, the Bearcats' Blake Horton and Austin Chesser were able to nail a 3-pointer each in the opening quarter. Noah Kronk was able to contribute one field goal also. The 2nd quarter remained cold offensively with Horton and Jacob Murdock were able to drop in 2-points each from the field.
Fortunately for the Bearcats, they were near a perfect 5 of 6 at the free throw line. Chesser and Kronk added two of the free throws each and Austin Aldridge added one.
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"Bell City came out ready and gave us all we wanted for the first half," commented JV coach Shawn Guethle. "They really outworked us." With only one point in the first half, Austin Aldridge for the 'Cats had a dynamic second half scoring 10 additional points. Aldridge combined with the other Austin (Chesser) for 13 of the 24-points in the third quarter.
Having dominated the third quarter, the Bearcats began the final period with a 24 point lead. Jacob Pedigo lit up the night from three point land with two three-point shots in the quarter.
"In the second half, we turned up the defensive intensity and our depth started to wear them down a little," noted Guethle. "We started to play very unselfishly and spread the ball around to the open man very well."
With the #2 seed in the SCAA tournament, the Bearcats Junior Varsity will be back in action on Thursday afternoon, January 24. Game time is at 4:00 PM when the 'Cats will take on the #3 seed Bloomfield Wildcats.
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Rolla, Missouri - The S&T Lady Miners Basketball Team is ecstatic about their latest win on January 19th in Rolla against the Prairie Stars from Springfield, Illinois. It was a tough game to play but the Lady Miners refused to back down from the fight. The Lady Miners has a winning season this far with 8-5, including the win that they recently took from the Quincy University Hawks on Thursday, January 17th.
Katelyn Heil (#15), is a senior at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla this year and has been on the basketball team for the past three years. She has been a big part of the Lady Miners and their team throughout her collegiate basketball career but will be graduating in the spring. Heil is a graduate from Dexter High School and even though she is hours away from her hometown, she still has a large number of fans rooting for her that are from the bootheel.
In the basketball game against the Prairie Stars last Saturday, the Lady Miners struggled against their rivals as the Prairie Stars hit six three pointers in a row, quickly catching up to the eight out of nine shots that the Lady Miners had made when the game first started. The Lady Miners only led by six but the Prairie Stars quickly stole the lead with a free throw and barely held on, leaving the score at 29 to 28.
The Lady Miners quickly stole the lead as the next quarter began as a new play started. They pulled together and had a score of 33 to 31. The Prairie Stars missed their chance to catch up to the Lady Miners but failed when the ball was turned over, allowing a Lady Miner to snatch the ball and sink a free throw, keeping the lead and creating a bigger point gap with a score of 36 to 31.
The Prairie Stars made 44% of their shots in the first half of the game while the Lady Miners made 54%. As the second half began, the Lady Miners scored one point towards their lead but missed two layups and quickly lost their chance to jump even farther ahead of their components. Three minutes into the third quarter, the Lady Miners lost their lead as the Prairie Stars scored five points, pushing the score to 37 to 36. The Lady Miners managed to make two layups and began to create a small gap between them and the Prairie stars but their competition was never far behind. The Prairie Stars were only behind by four points after the Lady Miners sunk another free throw.
It only took the Lady Miners six minutes to create a twenty-point gap between them and the Prairie Stars. It was overall the biggest lead of the night with a score of 69 to 49. The Prairie Stars continued to play hard but could not quite catch up to the Lady Miners who made 50% of their shots during the second half of the game. In the end, the Lady Miners took the win, adding another victory to their season with a total of nine wins. Katelyn Heil scored a total of three points during the game against UIS Prairie Stars and had an average of 4.4.
The Lady Miners are now headed to St. Louis on Thursday to play against the University of Missouri St. Louis Tritons. The team will be spending the weekend in St. Louis where they will prepare for their next game on Saturday, January 26th, where they will compete against the Maryville University Saints. The Lady Miners and Heil are excited for this weekend and hope to play hard against both opponents and keep up their winning streak.
