By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

It's been another great season for the Dexter Bearcats - the Lady Bearcats made another run into the playoffs, the wrestlers sent five to State, the cheerleaders won their second straight County Tournament cheer award, and the boys basketball team finished undefeated in SCAA play for the first time in over a decade, winning both the regular-season and tournament titles.

Parents, athletes, and coaches gathered to celebrate the successes of Bearcat Athletics in the winter season in the DHS Cafeteria on Monday night.

Cheer coach Laura Stone kicked things off by presenting first-time letter winners Alyssa Spear, Tayler Allen, and Madison McGowan with their awards.

"I want to thank the girls for their hard work, and their parents for all the support they've given us," Stone said. "These girls put in so many hours outside of the school day."

The Lady Bearcats were up next; assistant coach Eric Sitze, who handles JV coaching duties, expressed pride in the JV squad's 10-4 effort this season.

"It's been the first time in a few years with JV," Sitze said with a laugh. "We had a good tim; wicked up Taylor in mid season because we had one quit on us, and she helped out tremendously with handling the ball. I'm proud of this freshman group for getting out there and working hard."

Head coach Chad Allen spoke next, shifting the focus to the Varsity Lady 'Cats. Their 24-5 record tied for the second best record in school history, just behind LBB's 28-2 effort in Allen's inaugural season. LBB's 24 point victory over Notre Dame in the District Championship game is also the largest margin of victory in a title game in school history.

"It was a great season," Allen said. "It didn't end the way we wanted, but we were one step closer to the Final Four this year. If we go one more step next season, we're in Columbia. Hopefully they will work hard over the summer. We're going to focus most on strength and conditioning; Coach Pixley and I are talking about a strength program for girls, with a different workout and gym times from the guys."

Hannah Noe took home the Free Throw (79%) and Defensive awards, while Brittany Harris edged the Rebound Award from Paige Patterson - Harris averaged 9.4 boards per game, while Patterson averaged 8.6 - and took home the Team MVP award outright. Harris also crossed the 1,000 Point mark this season; her 1,211 career points leave her in third place all-time, behind Katelyn Heil and Rachel Blunt.

The Freshman and JV Boys basketball teams were up next; freshman coach Mike Vipperman and JV coach Shawn Guethle were both impressed with the team's improvement over the season.

"The freshmen played a lot on JV," Guethle said, "and they came a long, long way."

"[In our] third game, Poplar Bluff beat us by 30 points," he recalled. "They came up here for our next to last game, and we beat them by 20. This group did everything we asked and more. They didn't win a lot, but biggest improvement I've had in my 5 years as a coach."

Rob Nichols, head coach of the Varsity Bearcats, gave his thoughts on the season before presenting the team's individual awards.

"We played a few more sophomores than normal, and they did a great job," he said. "We started out slow, with a tough schedule early. This is a tough bunch of kids. Played through broken thumbs and bad knees knees early in the season."

"We had a 10 game win streak at one points," he continued, "and won the Stoddard County Conference and Tournament. This was the first time we were undefeated in the conference in over 10 years."

Tyler Miller took home both the Free Throw Award (83%) and Defensive Award; Jake Lee earned the Rebound Award (9 boards per game) and beat Miller by one vote for the Team MVP Award. Lee averaged 14.9 points per game and nine rebounds per game in his senior season.

Assistant Wrestling coach James Sneed announced the individual awards for the Bearcat Wrestling team to conclude the evening's festivities. The Varsity squad ended the season with a 15-3 record, including a second place finish in the Park Hills Duels, a first place finish in the Priory Invitational Tournament, and seven medalists at the prestigious Tiger Classic tournament. The 'Cats also had five state qualifiers, with Cody Stevens as the lone medalist.

"Thanks to the administration for their support and parents for getting the kids to the bus on time. When you're wrestling an all-day tournament in St. Louis, you'll wind up leaving the school at 5:00 a.m.," Sneed said. "We had a big team; we started with over 40, and ended the season with 36 wrestlers. The JV were in 4 tournaments this season, and did well. This sport is hard as a freshman or sophomore, as it takes time to learn, but we look forward to seeing these young guys on the mats in coming years."

Stevens took home the Most Aggressive Wrestler (wrestler that finishes the season with the most takedowns) Award and the team MVP. He also set the single-season takedown record with 114, shattering old record by over 30 takedowns. Junior Brad Wick, who battled injuries for a good part of the season, was deemed the Most Improved Wrestler by the team.

As one season ends, another begins - now the Bearcats, after a great Winter season, must move their focus on to baseball, softball, track, and boys tennis. With hard work and dedication, the Bearcats will continue to find great successes in their respective sports.

Photos Above:
Top: Individual award winners (front row, from left) Tyler Miller, Jake Lee, Cody Stevens, (back from, from left) Hannah Noe, Brittany Harris, and Brad Wick.
Bottom: Head basketball coach Rob Nichols addresses the crowd during Monday night's Winter Sports Banquet.

COLUMBIA - Monday night finds the William Woods University women's basketball team returning to the AMC Postseason Tournament championship game for the fourth time in as many years. For the third straight season, the Owls will battle Columbia College for the AMC's automatic berth to the NAIA National Tournament, with tipoff set for 7 p.m. from the Arena at Southwell Complex. "Voice of the Owls" Darren Munns and Craig McAndrews will bring the game to Owls fans, with the link available via wwuowls.com at gametime.

Earlier This Season

The teams have split the series this season, with the road team picking up the win in each contest. William Woods picked up the first ever road win at Columbia in the modern era, with a 69-64 victory. Sharron Andrews scored 17 points, while Ashlee Taylor and Megan Aubuchon each added 11.

In the return contest, the Owls ran into a near-perfect free throw shooting performance (27-of-28) from the Cougars, falling 66-76 on the night. Andrews again led the scoring for WWU with 18, with Blake French adding 11.

Quick Look - William Woods

William Woods is coming off a pair of convincing opening-round wins in the AMC Tournament, having dispatched Missouri Baptist in the opening round by a 63-41 count and running away from Williams Baptist in the semifinal to come out 80-55 victors.

The Owls used a balanced team performance in the quarterfinal win, with Megan Aubuchon having the most outstanding performance of the night. The senior finished with a career-high eight blocks on the night, one block shy of a 23-year-old single-game record, and nearly missed a triple-double as she added eight points and eight rebounds to her game line for the night. Ashlee Taylor also saw a near-miss on the night, as the junior finished with nine points and 10 rebounds for WWU.

On the season, Sharron Andrews leads the Owls offense, averaging 12.7 pts/gm on the year. Aubuchon and Taylor sit just shy of the 10-point plateau, with 9.9 pts/gm and 9.6 pts/gm respectively, with Aubuchon leading the rebounding battle for WWU with 7.2 per game. Andrews has steadily improved on the glass on the year and currently averages 6.2 boards per contest, good for second on the team. Miranda Loesch adds 4.7 per game and Taylor grabs 4.6 per contest to round out the glass crew.

As a team, the Owls are strong defensively, ranked in the top 25 in four defensive categories on the year. WWU holds its opponents to 56.258 pts/gm on the year, the 15th-best mark among NAIA Division I teams. The Owls also allow a stingy opponents shooting percentage of .360 (20th) and give up just 35.548 rebounds per game (21st) through 31 games on the year. The Owls are also ranked 22nd in total blocks, with 102 on the season.

On the offensive side of the ledger, the Owls are also among the top teams, with the 32nd-best 3-pt FG percentage in the country at .314 and the 35th-best rebounding margin (6.710). WWU holds top-50 marks in all shooting categories, adding a 44th-best .401 overall shooting pace to a 49th-best FT percentage of .674 and the aforementioned success from beyond the arc.

Individually, William Woods grabs four top-50 marks, with Andrews claiming the 31st-best mark for total steals and steals per game with 75 and 2.419/gm respectively. Blake French boasts an assist/turnover ratio of 1.618, the 42nd-best among NAIA Division I players and Aubuchon sits at 50th with 31 total blocks on the year.

Quick Look - Columbia College

The Lady Cougars enter today's game also having won their first two tournament games, but having seen a bit tougher semifinal matchup against Park University. Columbia easily handled Stephens College in the quarterfinals, winning by a 96-51 margin before outlasting the Pirates 83-67.

Columbia has five players who have averaged double figures on the season, although only four are active on the current roster. Heather English leads the team with 14.8 pts/gm, with Airelle Eldridge adding 13.3 on the year. Ashley Fisher and Julie Teeple round out the scoring with 12.4 and 10.6 respectively. Teeple is also strong on the glass, as she's the active leader for Columbia with 8.3 rebounds per game.

CC has struggled through the AMC slate with a short roster, with only seven players having seen action through January and February for the Lady Cougars. Despite being shorthanded, Columbia is ranked in the top-10 nationally in a number of categories, highlighted by a .791 FT shooting percentage - the second-best among NAIA Division I schools. 3-pt shooting is a strength for Columbia as well, with the Lady Cougars boasting a .344 shooting pace (sixth-best) and a pace of 7.34 3FG per game, ninth best in the country.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Over 500 miles from home, the regular season came to an unmerciful end for the Three Rivers Lady Raiders.

Beset by injuries that prematurely ended the year for two starters and sidelined players for over 100 games this year, the Lady Raiders got in an early hole and never recovered, losing 90-51 to the Iowa Western Lady Reivers here Saturday in a Region XVI contest.

Three Rivers (9-21, 2-10 XVI) trailed just 9-8 after Candace Miller’s bucket five minutes into the game, but the Lady Reivers (19-11, 6-6) ran off 14 straight points and never looked back, taking a 23-8 lead on Lanita Calloway’s basket with 9:18 left in the first half.

Calloway’s field goal with 48 seconds left in the first half extended the Iowa Western lead to 44-23 and her field goal with 13:32 left in the game made it 63-31. The Lady Raiders never came any closer than 20 points after halftime not got within 30 the final 13 minutes.

Taylor Turgeon paced the Lady Reivers with 21 points, while Calloway and Amber McCann added 12 apiece and Shaw-nee Winningham tossed in 10.

Abbie Warren led Three Rivers with 12 points, while Tazonda Gibbs added 11.

The Lady Raiders begin play in the Region XVI Tournament Thursday at Jefferson City when they take on Crowder. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at Lincoln University.

LANTANA, Fla.- After a dominating 11-5 win on Friday night to open their weekend series versus Valdosta State University at the Santaluces Complex, the Palm Beach Atlantic University baseball team came back on Saturday hoping for another pair of key regional wins. With the Fish leading 6-3 into the seventh inning of game one it appeared they would be on their way to at minimum a series win. That all changed however when VSU scored 11 runs in the final three innings to earn a 14-8 win in game one while jumping out early on the Fish in game two for a 7-3 win and series victory. 

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

FARMINGTON - A pair of free throws from Zhanesha Dickerson gave the Miller Career Academy Phoenix the lead just over a minute into the second quarter of Friday night's Class 4 Quarterfinal game.

The Lady Bearcats would never get it back.

Less than 200 yards from where the Phoenix handed LBB their first loss of the season, Miller Career Academy again defeated the Lady Bearcats by a 17 point margin, with a 51-34 final score (the December contest, held three months to the day earlier, ended with a 50-33 final).

The Phoenix were fashionably late to the game; tip was originally scheduled for 6:00 p.m., but had to be pushed back due to 'transportation difficulties', according to Farmington Civic Center staff. Despite the late start, the Phoenix shut down the usually potent Lady Bearcat offense with outstanding high-pressure defense.

"Offensively, we didn't really get things going, but you've got to give credit to Miller, they played really excellent defense," head coach Chad Allen said after the game. "I thought we played really well defensively. We battled hard, and we drew three or four charges. That's one thing we talked about a lot, and I thought we really battled hard."


"We had talked a lot about their physicality," he continued. "I thought, for the most part, we played really aggressive and physical along with them. We wore down there toward the end because of it, having to push and shove around so much inside.

Dickerson led the Phoenix with 21 points, and Coach Allen was quick to compliment the lone senior for her shooting ability.

"She's a very good jump-shooter. There's not a lot of jump-shooters in basketball like there were back in the day," Allen said of Dickerson. "She's a great shooter, and she can take you off the dribble and knock them down. She had an excellent game tonight."

The game got off to a slow start, but the Lady 'Cats were able to squeak out a 6-5 lead after the first quarter. Dickerson's free throws sparked a 10-2 run for the Phoenix in the second quarter that helped Miller Career to a 21-14 halftime cushion.

A long jumper from Paige Patterson and layup from Brittany Harris pulled LBB within three at the 6:00 mark of the third. The Phoenix were able to capitalize on a few Lady Bearcat turnovers late in the frame to take a 10 point lead into the fourth quarter.

A trey from Erika Cobb pulled the Bearcats within seven at the 5:40 mark in the fourth quarter, but it would be as close as LBB would get to a lead for the rest of the game. The Phoenix ran off another 10-2 run and utilized their delay game late to take the 51-34 victory and advance to the Show Me Showdown.

Despite the disappointing finale, Allen was proud of his team's 23-5 effort this season. It was a big improvement over the previous year, especially considering their short bench and sophomore-laden lineup.

"These girls had a great year; we made it one step further than we did last year, and we'll have everybody back next season," he said. "I want to motivate them to keep working hard over the summer; these girls want to go to the final four, and I think they'll get in there and get the work done."