EASTON, Pa. - American grinded out a 69-61 victory over Lafayette on Saturday at Kirby Sports Center. The Eagles were paced by Charles Hinkle's game-high 23 points and 52 percent shooting from the field.

Three Lafayette players scored in double figures, led by Rob Delaney's 12 and 11 apiece from Ryan Willen and Dan Trist.

The Leopards opened the game by scoring nine of the first 12 points and lead by six at the first media timeout. Jim Mower knocked down a corner three off a feed from Tony Johnson, the first of his seven assists, to open the game and Trist scored two baskets inside to give Lafayette (9-13, 4-3) the early advantage.

Johnson's drive and left handed layup gave Lafayette an 18-11 lead, its largest of the half, at 9:37. American (14-8, 5-2) countered with a 13-5 spurt to take its first lead of the afternoon at 24-23 on Daniel Munoz's three from the top of the key.

Charles Hinkle's third three of the half put American ahead 35-28 with less than a minute to play and the visitors took that lead into the locker room.

Lafayette used a 10-2 run to take a 39-37 lead to start the second half. Johnson's one handed overhand pass found a cutting Willen, who was fouled and hit two free throws to pull Lafayette within one (35-34) less than 90 seconds into the half. A bucket put American back up by three, but Delaney connected on a wing trey to tie the score at 37 before Mower's baseline jumper capped the run with 16:55 showing.

Delaney's right handed layup put Lafayette ahead 44-43 at 14:28 prior to American scoring 12 straight points, the last five on a pair of Hinkle jumpers, forcing a Lafayette timeout with 9:36 to play.

Following two from Willen at the charity stripe, Lafayette scored seven of the next nine points to make it a five-point game with 6:21 left after Delaney's transition three.

Trailing 60-53, Willen kicked the ball out to the corner to a wide open Levi Giese, who drained the three and made it a four-point game with 5:22 to play. Lafayette once again went down four (65-61) after Johnson stripped Munoz in the backcourt and hit one of two at the line with 54 seconds to play.

The Leopards forced a jump ball and took possession with 27 seconds on the clock but Mower misfired on a three with 17 seconds to go and American hit four free throws to close out the game.

Lafayette returns to action when it hosts Navy on Saturday Feb. 4 at 1 p.m.

Notes:

Dan Trist has scored in double figures in three consecutive games.

Lafayette is now 1-9 this season when an opponent shoots better than 50 percent from the field.

The Lafayette and American coaching staffs participated in the Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers awareness weekend, a collaborative initiative of the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

For a full breakdown of the game's stats, click here.

COLUMBIA - In a meeting of teams at the opposite ends of the standings in the AMC, the William Woods University women's basketball team stretched its conference winning streak to five, running out 65-46 winners over Stephens College on Saturday. Katie Scherder (Bowling Green, Mo.) led the Owls with 13 points on the afternoon, with Sharron Andrews (Oakland/Hayward, Calif.) and Ashlee Taylor (Dexter, Mo.) each shooting perfect from the floor (3-of-3 and 2-of-2, respectively) in the win.

The Owls jumped out to a 12-2 lead, spreading the offense around, but coming out of a timeout the Stars were able to knock down a trey as the shot clock expired and force a turnover to pull back to within five with 13:19 left.

The teams traded buckets over the next six minutes, but WWU was able to push its lead back out to double-digits at the eight minute mark and continue to pull away. Three consecutive treys for the Owls - back-to-back buckets from Scherder and a triple from Blake French (St. Charles, Mo.) put the Owls up 31-13 with just over five minutes left in the half.

Stephens was able to knock down a pair of free throws at the 4:59 mark, but the Owls defense continued to pester the Stars into bad looks, pulling out to a 20-point lead. Stephens was able to put in a single bucket at the 1:00 mark, but WWU took a 40-17 lead into the locker room at half.

The Owls opened the scoring in the second half, but through the opening seven minutes the Stars were able to keep pace. Stephens picked up a steal and a layup with 10:57 on the clock to narrow the deficit to 29-49, with Stephens head coach Bill Bixon calling a timeout to try to rally his team.

Out of the break, however, Olivia Storjohann (Eldridge, Iowa) hit a three for the Owls to push the lead back to 52-29. Stephens was able to answer with a three of its own, but four straight points from WWU extended the lead to 24. Stephens was able to whittle the margin to 17 with 2:55 left, at 59-42, but the Owls were able to hold the Stars at arm's length, with a dagger from Paige Stewart (Ballwin, Mo.) at the buzzer giving William Woods a 65-46 win.

The Owls are back in action on Thursday night, taking on Missouri Baptist University. Tipoff for the game is slated for 5:30 p.m.

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

The game was a rematch of the DHS homecoming two weeks prior; the Mules and Bearcats at the Bearcat Event Center in front of an energetic, capacity crowd.

The only real difference between the two contests was the stakes - part deux was for the 2012 SCAA Championship.

The Bearcats already held a 69-61 victory over the Mules; they concluded the season sweep of their 'next town over' rivals with a 54-40 victory for Dexter's second-straight SCAA Title.

"We jumped out early; I fully expected them to make that run and it be tight at the end. It's been a while since Dexter and Bernie played a game that didn't come down to the wire," Dexter head coach Rob Nichols said. "We were expecting that run, and luckily we were able to maintain that lead."

"I've watched several tapes on [Bernie], and it's always seemed like if you run them man-to-man, they run such good sets on offense that they'll still make shots," Nichols continued. "We tried to stay in a match-up zone and true zone and really tried to make them play and not use sets to score."

Nichols was also quick to compliment the Mules' effort in the scrappy contest.


"There were a lot of loose balls, and our kids were just getting after it. I thought early in the game they scrapped and got those loose balls to set us up for some transition baskets," he said. "Bernie is a great defensive team, and it's not easy to get baskets on those guys by any means."

The Bearcats jumped out to a 13-8 lead after the first quarter, and used a six point second quarter effort from Jake Lee to carry a 28-18 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The Mules got within nine points at the end of the third quarter, but just couldn't keep up with Dexter in the fourth; five more points from Lee and solid defense helped keep the Bearcat lead intact to the final buzzer.

“We really struggled offensively in every aspect tonight. Dexter really had their way with us and we didn’t fight back much at times," Bernie head coach Brad Botsch said. "We really have to play smart basketball to compete with a good team and win, and tonight, we were really careless with the ball. Dexter really put it on us and was in complete control all night."

The Bearcats were led by senior Jake Lee with 16 points and 14 boards; the 6'3" post ended the tournament with double-doubles in all three games.

"Jake...sick, tired, hurt, whatever, he'll always come out and give you 110 percent of what's in his body," Nichols said. " I'm proud of him every game because of how hard he plays; he gets everything out of his body he can get. I'm glad to have him on the team."

The Bearcats were well-represented on the All-Tournament team, with Lee, Tyler Miller, and Chase Young all receiving the honor.

"I was glad to see Chase make the All-Tournament team; that told me people were actually watching the games this week, because he had three excellent games," Nichols commented.

David Baker and Bubby Schwent paced the Mules with 11 points apiece; Sam Turner added 10 points in the loss.

Reader-submitted by K. Massey

Dexter AAU wrestlers Mason Keena, Nate Weathers, and Storm Massey competed at St. Francis High School January 22, 2012. The boys did an excellent job representing the Bootheel.

Both Nate and Storm placed first and Mason placed third in his division. The boys compete most weekends in the St. Louis area in order to obtain experience and mat time. Good job guys!

Photo above, from left:
Massey, Keena, and Weathers show off the hardware they earned in a recent AAU wrestling tournament.

ROLLA – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners broke open a tight game at the break with a 9-2 run to start the second half en route to breaking a two game skid 68-54 on Thursday evening in Rolla. Julie Meyer (Marthasville, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) matched her career-high with 20 points while Hailee Parks (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) dropped in 16.

The opening frame was a game of runs as the two sides proceeded to trade leads through most of the half. Rockhurst (4-13, 2-8 GLVC) took its first lead of the contest on a three from Shelby Geiman at the 12:42 mark. S&T (12-5, 7-3 GLVC) responded with a layup from Senait McLeod (Miami, Fla./Coral Reef) and a three-pointer from Toni Knar (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) to regain and push the lead to five points by the 11:02 mark.

The Hawks responded with five straight of their own to regain the advantage. Susan Hohenadel knocked home a three and Chrissy Sarcone hit a jumper during that span.

Parks put the Lady Miners back ahead with a jumper at the 7:30 mark, but Rockhurst ran off the next seven points to take its biggest lead of the night at 21-15. Megan Cook started the run with a pair of free throws then Melanie Siscos and Katye Nash knocked home back-to-back threes.

S&T responded with 11 straight of its own to regain their five-point cushion. Karli Sample (St. Joseph, Mo./Benton) started the run with a three off an inbounds play. After a Kyesha Hall (Dodson, La.) layup made it a one-point game, Sample gave the Lady Miners the lead for good with a layup. Hall added two more on a pair of free throws and Parks capped it off with a fast break layup with 2:28 to play in the stanza.

The Hawks refused to yield as Taylor Skala converted on a fast break chance to make it 26-23. Skala committed a foul on the ensuing play sending Meyer to the line where she knocked down both free throws pushing it back to five.

Rockhurst wrapped a pair of three's from MaKayla Grahn and Geiman around a Parks bucket cutting S&T's lead to 30-29 at the intermission.

The Lady Miners shot the ball well in the opening frame knocking down 12-for-23 (52 percent), but turned it over 12 times. They were 2-of-4 from downtown and 4-for-7 at the foul line. Parks had 12 in the frame while Sample added five and Meyer and Hall dropped in four apiece.

The Hawks stayed in the contest thanks to their three-point shooting knocking home 5-of-9 (56 percent). As a whole they shot just 38 percent (11-for-29) and were just 2-of-5 at the foul line. Geiman and Sarcone had six apiece to lead Rockhurst.

S&T started the second half strong as Meyer keyed the charge scoring seven of the first nine points including the first five to open the frame. She started it on the defensive end rebounding a missed shot and streaked ahead to score on the break and was fouled for the old-fashioned three-point play. On the next possession she got a steal and scored on the break again to make it 35-29 less than two minutes into the stanza.

Rockhurst cut it to four but Parks and Meyer scored back-to-back baskets to make it an eight point contest. The Hawks to their credit continued to hang around cutting it down to four with 11:02 to play.

The Lady Miners put the game away over the next six minutes scoring 10 of 14 points in building a double digit advantage. Rockhurst got as close as nine with 4:29 to play, but S&T was solid at the foul line down the stretch building its largest lead of the night at 65-50 on a bucket by Hall with 1:38 to go. Meyer matched that lead with a pair of free throws a minute later.

The Lady Miners shot only 44 percent in the second half but were 17-for-21 at the foul line in the stanza. They finished the contest shooting 48 percent (22-for-46) from the field and went 21-of-28 (75 percent) at the charity stripe.

S&T held the Hawks to just 40 percent (21-for-53) shooting for the night. The Lady Miners held a 36-27 edge on the boards and outscored Rockhurst 32-18 in points in the paint.

Sarcone was the lone Hawk player in double figures with 10. Geiman added eight off the bench while Skala chipped in with seven as well.

S&T returns to action on Saturday afternoon traveling up to Liberty, Mo., to take on GLVC newcomer William Jewell beginning at 1 p.m.