By Andrew Cato,
ShowMe Times Sports

ADVANCE, Mo. - The Dexter Bearcats had to go into one of the most hostile environments in Stoddard County basketball Friday night (Feb. 4) when they faced off against the Advance Hornets.

To make things even more interesting, it was Advance’s Homecoming, and the Bearcats were playing without the help of senior Alan Flannigan, who was out sick for the night. Flannigan, as well as several of his teammates, have been battling the flu for most of the week. The Bearcats weren’t able to crash the Hornets’ Homecoming, with Advance coming out on top with a final score of 65-49.

The Bearcats came out a little fuzzy in the first quarter. Hunter Wilson hit a 15 foot jumper on the opening possession of the game for the Hornets; teammate Grant Gray was good from beyond the arc at the 6:00 mark to help Advance jump out on a quick 10-0 run to start the game. Jake Cox made a big steal on the ensuing possession and took the ball the length of the court to put Dexter’s first two points on the board. Advance held the lead, 16-5, at the end of the first quarter.

Tyler Miller opened the second quarter with a steal for the Bearcats, but wasn’t able to score. Advance went on a quick 6-0 run to open the frame, but Miller came up with a big block and two rebounds to help swing the momentum back in the Bearcats’ favor. The ‘Cats were able to cut Advance’s lead to six points with three minutes left in the half, but Gray nabbed the ball on a mishandled pass to put an end to Dexter’s offensive surge.

Junior Jake Lee had a hard block on Advance’s Darren VanGennip with 50 seconds left in the half. The ‘Cats were able to scoop the ball and sophomore Chase Young hit a deep three with just seconds left on the clock, but the Hornets still held a 10 point lead going into halftime.

Cox made his second steal of the night in the opening minutes of the third, but the Hornets were still able to force a 6-0 run to start the second half. The Bearcats made sloppy passes throughout the quarter and Advance capitalized, scoring eight of their 14 points in the frame off turnovers. Dexter went 2-9 from the free-throw line and were held to six points in the frame; Advance held a commanding 18 point lead at the end of the quarter.

Wilson hit his only three of the night in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, increasing the Hornets’ lead to 21. Miller again led the ‘Cats in the fourth with two deep threes, a three point play, and another block. Bryn Hester and Young also came up with steals for the Bearcats in the quarter, but Dexter was never able to cut Advance’s lead to less than 13 points. Dylan Dunivan picked off a pass from Taylor Jarrell in the closing minute of the game, dropped in a layup, and drew a charge, but was unable to connect on his free-throw for the three-point play. The Hornets went on a six point run to close the contest, ending with a 16 point victory on their homecoming night.

“Besides Alan [Flannigan], Jake Lee, Jordan Fitts, and Jake Cox were all out with sickness this week,” Bearcat coach Rob Nichols said after the game, “So I knew we would struggle for energy a little bit, but again: we didn’t play well, and we didn’t handle the ball well.”

“He [Flannigan] played up in St. Louis all summer, so we’ve played without him before,” Nichols said. “For the most part, we played better offensively than what we did tonight; we didn’t look as tight.” 
“In the summer, they were more free with it and more aggressive; tonight they [Dexter] didn’t look like they wanted to make a mistake, which led to a lot of mistakes.”
“There just wasn’t any consistent offensive attack tonight.”

“We just had too many turnovers right at the beginning.” Tyler Miller said after the game. “We got down and just couldn’t get back up; we still had the New Madrid game in our heads from all the turnovers, and it was hard to deal with that.”

“Obviously we think that, us being the Dexter Bearcats, we’ve got a lot to prove without Alan [Flannigan] being here,” said Jake Lee, “but it was a tough loss for us. Shots weren’t falling for us tonight.”

“I’ve been out three days this week with the flu,” Lee continued,”and I’m totally drained out. We’re all going to get back in the gym Sunday, get healthy, and look for that win Tuesday night. We’ve just gotta keep our heads together, because it could be real easy to break apart as a team right now.”

Photo above Dexter's Jake Cox takes the ball down court during Friday night's loss to Advance. The Hornets won their Homecoming game over the Bearcats, 65-49.

By Andrew Cato,
ShowMe Times Sports

The Dexter Lady Bearcats put on a display of complete defensive dominance Thursday night (Feb. 3) at home. The Lady ‘Cats faced off against the Lady Hawks of Kelly, and held the Hawks scoreless for the first six and a half minutes of the first quarter.

Freshman Alison Jarrell opened the night for the Lady ‘Cats with a steal and a three-pointer in the opening minute of the game. Dexter jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, when Brittany Harris blocked a jumper from Kelly’s Kristen Powell at the 6:00 mark to keep the shutout effort going. Erika Cobb was able to connect from beyond the arc for the ‘Cats, pushing Dexter’s lead to 15-0. Harris stole the ball from Powell and dumped it to Cobb, allowing the Lady ‘Cat freshman to hit her second three of the night at the 1:40 mark.

Kristen Vetter scored put up Kelly’s first points of the evening, hitting an easy layup with 1:30 left in the opening quarter and ending an impressive 20-0 Dexter run. Hannah Noe connected from three-point land with 45 second left in the first, and Harris made her second steal of the night to prevent a Lady Hawk fast-break with 10 seconds on the clock. The Lady ‘Cats had a dominating 22 point lead at the end of the first.

Harris again stole the ball immediately after Kelly’s inbounds pass to open the second quarter, allowing Jarrell to hit her second three of the night on the ensuing possession. Powell made an easy layup at the 6:00 mark for the Lady Hawks, stopping another scoring spree (7-0 to open the frame) for the Bearcats. Cobb, Paige Patterson, and Mollie Whitehead all recorded steals in the quarter to help keep the Lady ‘Cats on top going into halftime, 37-7.

The third quarter was more of a defensive battle than the first half. Dexter’s defense continued to impress, with Jarrell recording her second steal of the night at the 6:40 mark. Kelly’s defense also stepped up in the frame, holding the Lady ‘Cats to only nine points in the frame, but Dexter still held a commanding 34 point lead after the third. Dexter was able to rotate in some of it sub’s during the fourth quarter, with Kendra Stevenson, Raezheem Miller, and Sarah Langely all seeing action in the frame. Harris had an opportunity for a three-point-play with 6:00 left in the game, but was unable to connect on the free-throw. The Lady Hawks were able to put up seven points in the frame - their highest total in any quarter of the contest, but Dexter came out on top with a 55-19 final score.

The Lady ‘Cats will next be in action on February 7, when they face Notre Dame at home. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.

A ShowMe Times Sports Report

The temperature outside may have had a definite winter chill, but inside the Bearcat Event Center things were ‘hot’ as the Lady Bearcats defeated the Doniphan Donnettes 83-45 on Monday evening (Jan. 31).

Dexter freshman Allison Jarrell tied Lady Bearcat record for the most 3-point shots in a single game. Jarrell hit seven 3’s in the Doniphan game, matching the school record set in 2006 by Taylor Nelson. Jarrell had a total of 25 points in Monday’s game.

Leading the Lady ‘Cats was Brittany Harris, who scored 28 points in the first 3 quarters of the contest. Jarrell brought home 25 points, followed by Mollie Whitehead with 10, Hannah Noe – 7, Erica Cobb – 5, and Paige Patterson – 4.

Doniphan’s Raven Sturgeon led the Donnettes with 19 points. Teammate Hannah Netherland was the only other Donnette in double digits with 13; Emily Stonecipher had 4, Halle McCaffrey – 3; Micah Smith – 2; Leslie Wood – 2; Brittney Ritter – 2.

The 2011 All-County Cheerleading squad was chosen during the 86th Annual Stoddard County Tournament. Members of the squad were announced during the championship game on Friday, Jan. 28 and brought to center court for the medal presentation. Members of the squad are (front row, from left) Madison Pixley, Ashley Mick, Jessica Norman, McKenzie Mitchell, Taylor Martin, all of Dexter; (back row, from left) Allie Below, Advance; Alex Eakin, Bell City; Kendra Elder, Mariah Massey, both of Bloomfield; Rachel Vernon and Paige Mays of Bernie; and Taylor Pulley, Bloomfield.

By Andrew Cato,
ShowMe Times Sports

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - The stage was set. The teams ready. The crowd ready for a night of basketball.

The championship game of the 86th Annual Stoddard County Tournament on Jan. 28 pitted the Bernie Mules and the Dexter Bearcats in the second time the teams have met this season. The game was also a rematch of the 2010 tournament finals - with both teams ready to battle it out to be crowned the basketball champions of Stoddard County by the evening’s end.

Dexter has had trouble finishing games with the Mules the last two seasons. When the two teams met two weeks ago the Mules squeaked past the Bearcats, winning by six points. In last year’s finals, the Mules beat the ‘Cats by just a point, 47-46.

The Bearcats’ defense seemed much improved over their previous meeting, with Tyler Miller and Alan Flannigan each having a block and a takeaway during the opening quarter. Cameron Shipman hit a three with about two minutes left for the Mules, but was quickly answered by Logan Robey for the Bearcats, who hit his first three of the night on the ensuing possession. The Mules held onto a 13-11 lead at the end of the first.


Dexter’s defensive dominance continued in the second quarter. Miller had two more takeaways, and Bryn Hester, Jake Cox, and Jake Lee each picked off Bernie passes. Eight of the ‘Cats’ 14 points in the frame came off turnovers, but Jordan McGowan again shot brilliantly from three-point land. The senior made five threes the during the regular season meeting between the two clubs, and was no different tonight.

McGowan hit his first three at the 2:15 mark, made a big steal 10 seconds later, and hit another NBA-range three with two minutes left in the half. Senior Taylor Jarrell had two big layups off offensive rebounds to put the Bearcats in the lead, 24-21, in the final seconds of the half, but McGowan hit another deep three at the buzzer to tie things at 24 going into halftime.

Turnovers marred the beginning of the second half, with Bernie’s Jesse Shelton nabbing the ball away on Dexter’s opening possession. Jake Cox quickly stole the ball back for the Bearcats, but neither team was able to find the bottom of the rim until McGowan hit his fourth three of the night for the Mules with 6:30 left in the quarter.

Flannigan hit a deep three for the ‘Cats and came up with a big block on Bernie’s Sammy Walker on the next possession. Cox was good from behind the arc for the ‘Cats to give Dexter a two-point lead with three minutes left in the frame.

Flannigan tipped in a missed Miller jumper to increase Dexter’s lead to five, but McGowan hit his fifth three of the night on the ensuing possession to cut the lead back to two. The Bearcats went on a quick 6-0 run that was capped by a beautiful Flannigan finger-roll at the buzzer. The third quarter ended with a 41-33 Bearcat lead.

Miller got yet another takeaway in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, but scoring for both teams stalled until Robey hit his second three of the night for Dexter. Jake Lee completed a three-point play with 3:30 left in the contest, and Hester drained another three on the next possession to push the Bearcats’ lead to 15.

Shipman hit back-to-back threes for the Mules to cut Dexter’s lead to 11 with two minutes left in the game. Even though the ‘Cats went 1 of 5 from the free-throw line in the fourth, they were still able to hang on to the lead and win the game 56-49.

“Rebounding and all around effort were the keys tonight; we wanted it more tonight than we did last time we played,” said Tyler Miller after the game. “Effort was the biggest thing. We played to win instead of playing to not lose.”

“Its the last tournament that I’ll ever play in [in this gym], and we made it a good one,” Senior Alan Flannigan said. “We didn’t handle the ball as well last game; we didn’t move the ball well so it was hard to get in our offensive flow. We made big shots down the stretch and everybody stepped up.”

“We pressured them as hard as we could,” said Dexter head coach Rob Nichols, “we played half-court man or zone and tried to limit their penetration.”

“We weren’t very happy about that [shot at the buzzer]. We didn’t finish the quarter very well; we forced it where we should have been taking the last shot and he [McGowan] hit a tough shot, that’s what he does. Those shots [Cameron] Shipman hit at the end of the game, you’ve gotta give him credit. Those were tough shots,” Nichols commented.

“The kids did a good job; we worked on these defensive adjustments for four or five days, and for them to play as well as they did, its a good thing. We forced them [Bernie] to take some shots and our guys rebounded well.”

Nichols gave the Bernie squad its due, noting the team was tenacious and hard-working throughout the night.

“Bernie is a team that isn’t going to quit. They’re well-coached and they play hard. Any time you can beat them you know you’ve played well; they’re a good basketball team with good basketball players,” the Dexter coach said.