EASTON, Penn. - The Leopards are hovering at .500 and will venture to Princeton for a Wednesday matchup. In its last outing, Lafayette erased a 14-point second-half deficit before Delaware drilled a three in the closing minute to brush away a comeback attempt.

Princeton (2-5) is coming off a three-game swing in the TicketCity Legends Classic in Lewisburg, Pa. during which the Tigers went 1-2.

In personnel news, senior guard Jim Mower and freshman guard Seth Hinrichs earned Patriot League weekly honors.

In the first game of the week, Mower made a school-record 10 three-pointers in a win over FDU, shooting 10-of-13 from beyond the arc and finishing with a career-high 37 points. At Delaware, Mower had 19 points, including 7-of-8 at the line, and a season-high seven rebounds. It is the second honor of Mower's career.

Hinrichs becomes the first Lafayette player to garner Rookie of the Week accolades in two straight weeks since Bilal Abdullah '08 accomplished the feat in 2004-05. Hinrichs was in the starting lineup for both games and averaged 10 ppg, including a career-high 13 points at Delaware. He is shooting 57.1 percent from downtown (8-14) and ranks second in the league in that category. The last time two Lafayette players swept the weekly awards was Dec. 26, 2007, when Andrew Brown '09 and Deirunas Visockas '11 were named Player and Rookie of the Week, respectively.

Dexter, Missouri native Alan Flannigan has had success coming of the bench for the Leopards this season, despite missing two weeks with injuries earlier in the year. Flannigan has shown great promise on the boards, as well as some ability to score in the paint.


Princeton, an NCAA Tournament team in 2011, comes into the game with a 2-5 mark, last competing in the TicketCity Legends Classic. The Tigers were 1-2 in those three games, losing to Bucknell and Morehead State before beating West Alabama. Princeton also claims Buffalo as a win on Nov. 19, but has losses to Wagner (73-57) in the season opener and at N.C. State (60-58).

Junior forward Ian Hummer is the team's leading scorer (16.1 ppg) and rebounder (8.2 rpg). Classmate Brendan Connolly (2.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg) has started six games at center. Juniors Mack Darrow (6.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg) and Will Barrett (4.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg) also have spent time in the frontcourt.

Senior guard Doug Davis is second on the team in scoring with 11.7 points per game and has a team-high 16 three-pointers. His younger brother, sophomore Deoliver Davis, was a key member of the Lafayette football defensive backfield in 2011.

Sophomore guard T.J. Bray is the team's best distributor, averaging 4.4 assists per game while starting all seven games.

Princeton perennially is among the nation's leaders is scoring defense, as its offense limits the number of opponents' possessions. Teams are averaging 59.1 ppg. The Tigers are coached by Mitch Henderson '98 who is in his first season.

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Lafayette College is a NCAA Division 1 school, located in Easton, Pennsylvania, and is a member of the Patriot League.


Dexter native Alan Flannigan is a member of the basketball team.

Everyone at the ShowMe Times is proud to announce the launch of SMT HOOPS CHALLENGE!



In the HOOPS, the object is simple: we give you at least 20 games a week for 13 weeks, featuring local boys and girls basketball as well as college games of local and regional interest. No scores, no ‘upset predictions’ - just winners and losers. Every game that you pick correctly will get you a point –20 or more possible points a week, and at least 260 possible points in the whole contest.



Your picks will be 'unlocked' at 12 noon each Sunday, and will be open until 6 p.m. each Wednesday, at which point they will be locked in.




All you have to do to enter is provide your full name and a working email address - used to notify you of any prizes you win - and then make your picks on a weekly basis.



Wait, PRIZES?!?



Yes, you read that correctly: we’re giving out prizes every week. Once the scores are tallied each week, the top three finishers will win a prize.



At the end of the contest period, the top point scorer will win the grand prize. You’ll like what we have in store for HOOPS CHALLENGE! During our recently Pigskin Pick’Em football contest, Grand Prize winner Brett Dorton receive 50-inch flat screen television!

 This game will be exciting, electrifying, and will shine the sports spotlight on some great area high school and college hoops!!!

The full rules and regulations for the contest can be found here.

You can navigate to the page by mousing over the sports button and clicking the link on the drop-down menu, or you can, from the home page, click the link on the left of the three buttons beneath the search bar.

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

FARMINGTON - The Lady Bearcats opened the 2011-2012 season with a bang on Monday night with a 65-57 win over rival Notre Dame in the first round of the Farmington Tournament. It was sloppy at times, but the Lady ‘Cats were still able to pull out the ‘W’ and advance in the tournament.

“I definitely didn’t feel like we brought our ‘A’ game today,” head coach Chad Allen said. “We had a lot of turnovers, which is very uncharacteristic of us. [Notre Dame has] a pretty aggressive full court press, and we had a few turnovers in it. A lot of that can be attributed to not using ball fakes, but that can be fixed.”


The Lady Bearcats’ offense exploded early, with Alison Jarrell hitting three consecutive three pointers in roughly a minute. Erika Cobb came off the bench and provided a great performance - she was really aggressive in the passing lanes and hit big shots when they were needed.

“Like I told the girls after the game - offensively, we can score enough points to win every game, but defensively we did a very poor job of closeouts and keeping them in front of us,” Allen continued. “It seemed like [Notre Dame] got to the basket any time they wanted, and we’ll have to improve on that.”


Brittany Harris came out strong in the second quarter, hitting two shots in the team’s first two possessions of the frame and pulling down several rebounds. Cobb hit a three late in the second quarter to give the ‘Cats a 32-22 lead at the half.

Harris’ dominance in the paint continued in the third quarter, with a block and four rebounds in the first two minutes of the frame. Cobb continued to play well, coming up with two steals and hitting a 12-footer to end a 9 point Notre Dame run late in the quarter. Mollie Whitehead completed a three-point play at the 3:00 mark to give the ‘Cats a 41-33 lead.


Notre Dame’s Summer Burger played some very aggressive defense in the contest, and came up with two steals in the last two minutes of the third to help the Bulldogs pull within five, but Cobb came up with another steal and dumped the ball to Hannah Noe for a layup at the buzzer to give the ‘Cats a 47-40 lead at the end of the third.

Whitehead hit a shot from the paint to open the fourth quarter. Paige Patterson, who also had a solid game in the paint, had an offensive board and putback at the 5:20 mark to give the ‘Cats a 57-46 lead. The Bearcats’ defense played much better in the fourth quarter, with Patterson, Cobb, Jarrell, and Katelynn Frazier all coming up with steals. The ‘Cats put up a quick five point run at the end of the game to claim the win and move on to the semifinal round of the tournament.

Coach Allen was pleased with his team’s performance in the paint throughout the contest.

“I thought all three of our bigs did extremely well tonight - Brittany, Paige, and Mollie all had good games,” Allen said. “We like to get the ball inside, and we scored a lot of points in the lane. I think most of our points came from under the basket, and it’s good to see that. It opens up the outside when we do that for Alison [Jarrell], Hannah [Noe], and Erika [Cobb] to knock down shots.”

While he was happy with the win, Allen was concerned about his team’s hit-and-miss performance on defense - much akin the old saying ‘Offense sells tickets, defense wins championships’, he feels his team need to get better every game on the defensive front to be successful.

“Offensively, we have a great ball team,” Allen said. “We’ve got enough scorers on the team that the offense can really take care of itself, but defensively, we’re going to have to get to working a little harder and get better each game.”


The Lady Bearcats will be in action again on Friday night at 7:30 p.m., when they take on the Poplar Bluff Lady Mules in the semifinal round.

SHOWME SCOREBOARD

 

Here are the scores from area games played Monday, Nov. 28: 

High School Boys

• Advance 76, Kelly 54
• Oran 77, Richland 49
• Perryville 62, Zalma 23
• Leopold 62, Woodland 20
• Scott County Central 83, Oran JV 36

High School Girls

• Dexter 65, Notre Dame 57 (Farmington Tournament)
• Poplar Bluff 55, Pacifc 54 (Farmington Tournament)
• Charleston 59, East Prairie 54
• Neelyville 74, Ellington 23
• Van Buren 54, Thayer 34
• Alton 58, Twin Rivers 47

To submit scores to the ShowMe Times, please email news@showmetimes.com.

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

For a coach, it’s always hard to try and rebuild a team after having a big senior class. The difficulty is compounded when you’re replacing the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, and even more so when its the same person - but that’s exactly what Rob Nichols and the Dexter Bearcats are out to do this season.

The player in question is Alan Flannigan - the six-foot seven post averaged a double-double (22 points, 12 boards) last season, and was the leader of the team in both the stats book and in spirit. Arguably the best basketball player to come through DHS since Brett Hale, Flannigan is currently playing Division-I ball at Lafayette College.

“Alan’s definitely a great player - a lot of the other kids just gravitated to him,” Nichols said. “They tried to let him do his thing, even if they weren’t consciously doing it. They wanted to make sure in a tough situation, he had the ball. I think they can do more than what they did offensively, and I think we can show that this year. He averaged 22 points a game last year, and he earned every one of them.”

Despite losing six seniors last season, the ‘Cats return three of their starters and a player that came in off the bench frequently.

“We return three starters - Jordan Fitts, Jake Lee, and Tyler Miller. Chase Young played quite a bit last year, and he’s a solid guard,” Nichols continued. “We’re not very big, six-two, six-three is about as big as we go, so we’re going to have to change the way we play a bit offensively and do some different things.”

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Miller, a 6’2” forward, averaged 8 points and 4 boards per game, but he had a propensity to pick up the team with big buckets when they were needed in his junior year. Lee, coming in at 6’3”, averaged 6 points and rebounds a game, and Fitts, a 5’7” guard, averaging 5.6 points and 1 rebound per game.

The Bearcats might not have a ‘star player’ like the had the last few years - instead, the team is comprised of players that have a role and know it.

“Jake and Tyler will have to be leaders this year. Jake’s really an emotional leader - he’s a fiery kid, wears his emotion on his sleeves, and they’ll have to step up a lot in scoring and rebounding,” Nichols said. “We expect Chase to step in at point guard and be a team leader running the point. Brad Potts is coming up off JV, and he’ll see some time. We’re going to dress two sophomores on Varsity that will play key roles in D.J. Dowdy and Cody Neldon, and then there’s our big guys, Jonathan Page and Tyler Wilson. Everybody has a role that they’ll need to play.”

“We’ll definitely have to be more balanced in scoring, do some different things offensively, and I think these kids can step up and do it,” he continued. “I don’t think we’re as deep as we were last year. I’d say we were eight deep, but that eighth guy can change every night. We’re not a deep team that can go 10 or 12 deep on a nightly basis.”

The ‘Cats open the 2011-2012 campaign with two of the toughest teams on the schedule - Charleston and Sikeston. Nichols noted the challenge of opening the season with two opponents this difficult, but he thinks his team’s ‘under the radar’ status right now could help them early.

“It gives them a good measuring stick of where they are - if you’ve got a young team like this, sometimes it can be better to play some teams early where you’re the favorite, but it’ll give us a good gauge for the season,” he said. “We’re kind of an unknown, it was hard to get them together during the summer - had kids playing baseball and football - but to me, even in my mind, we’re an unknown until we play that first game.”

“Everybody around here says the top two teams around here are Sikeston and Charleston,” Nichols continued. “If we’re an unknown commodity now, we’ll be known after the first two weeks.”


The Bearcats kick off the regular season Tuesday (Nov. 29) night on the road against the Charleston Blue Jays. Tipoff is set for JV action at 6:00 p.m., with the Varsity game immediately following.

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