Farmington, MO - The Dexter Lady Bearcats advanced to the finals of the 48th annual Farmington Invitational Tournament with a 67-28 win over the Poplar Bluff Lady Mules on Friday night.

Both teams started out slowly with a number of turnovers before Hannah Noe broke the scoring ice for Dexter with a basket a little over two minutes into the game.  After a basket by Samantha Gatewood of Poplar Bluff, the Lady Cats went on a 6 to 0 run with two free throws by Paige Patterson and two baskets by Brittnay Harris.  After three points by Poplar Bluff, another basket by Harris made the score 10-5 at the end of the first quarter.

The Lady Cats really opened by the offense in the second quarter.  Erika Cobb made two free throws and a basket to open the quarter. Hannah Now then made two free throws after being fouled while shooting, which were two of her ten points in the quarter.  Sandwiched between some oh Noe's points were the first four points of the varsity career of Melaine McKuin.  Two of these came on a nice jump shot and two came on a drive to the basket.  Finally, he quarter ended with two baskets by Brittnay Harris (15 points on the night) and the Lady Cats had a 33-9 halftime lead.

The second half started with basket by Patterson and then it started to"rain threes" in the Dexter offense.  Allison Jarrell made two, Hannah Noe made one and Erika Cobb made the other and suddenly he Lady Cats had a 47-12 lead. Harris had two more baskets in the quarter, Cobb had two more (for four of her fifteen points) and Katelynn Frazier had her only two points of the night.

The fourth quarter featured a "mercy rule" running clock as the Lady Cats were up by more the thirty points.  The highlight of the fourth quarter was Dakota Reynolds scoring her fist two points as a Lady Bearcat.  Dexter played outstanding defense all night, something that please Coach Chad Allen. 

"Anytime you force a good team like Poplar Bluff into 24 turnovers on the night, you have played well defensively", he commented.  "They pretty sharp tonight."

Also not to be overlooked were the 6 assists by Katelynn Frazier and three assists by Mollie Whitehead on some outstanding passes.

The Lady Cats play for the championship on Saturday night in Farmington against Miller Career Academy.  Miller Career was the team that defeated the Lady Bearcats last season in the State Quarterfinal game by a score of 51 to 34.

"They only lost one player so they have their main core of their team back," noted Coach Allen.  "The one girl they graduated actually went to play at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock so they have the majority of their team back."

"They will be really good as they are a big, physical team," added Allen.

"We just have to get after them like we did tonight and we can wear them down,' say Allen.  "We simply need to make conditioning a factor in the game and get them in the third and fourth quarter."

Join the Lady 'Cats for their game in Farmington.  If you are unable to make the trip, tune into Jim Reiker as he brings you all the action on Life Radio 90.3 KLUH.  Game time will begin at 6:30 PM tomorrow evening.

Campbell, Missouri - Bernie High School’s basketball team takes yet another victory to add to their brand new season. On Thursday, November 29^th, the Bernie Mules faced the Twin Rivers Royals in the Campbell Tournament. The Mules took the win with a final score of 74 to 63 during the varsity game.

During the first quarter, Bernie barely took the lead but pulled through with the final score of first quarter at 16 to 15. The team knew they had to step up their defense if they were going to pull a win out from under Twin Rivers, so they began focusing their energy defensively as well as offensively. During the second quarter, Bernie found their groove on Campbell’s floors and quickly got back in the swing of things with a score of 32 to 25. The third quarter was still action packed but the Mules once again pulled farther ahead, slowly inching their way to victory with a score of 53 to 43. In the fourth quarter, Bernie continued to keep a ten point gap between them and their opponent, ending the game at 74 to 63.

Senior David Baker (#31) was the lead scorer for the Mules, gaining 22 of the 74 points by the end of the night. This is Baker’s last year of high school basketball and he is intent on keeping a shiny record throughout the season. Eric Ray from Twin Rivers was a tough rival, earning the Royals 21 of their 63 points, requiring the Mules to step up their defensive once again to keep a steady score. BJ Jennings, a Bernie Mule, scored 15 points while his teammate Bubby Schwent scored 12, helping lead their team to the victory they claimed last night.

Bernie’s current record is 2-0 and although Twin Rivers was a tough match, they pushed themselves to a whole new level to keep a spotless record thus far. Brad Botsch, Bernie’s head coach, believes that this will be a triumphant season for the Mules if they continue to work hard and build on their defense.

“We grinded out a win,” Botsch explained. “This was a very physical game that may not have been pretty, but we found a way to get the job done. Twin Rivers played hard and Coach Benson does a nice job with his kids. I thought we were on our heels defensively all night, and we’ll have to play much better if we want to beat a very good Holcomb club tomorrow.”

The Bernie Mules will be spending a third night at the Campbell Tournament and will be facing the Holcomb Hornets tonight at 8:30pm. So, put on some blue and support the Mules as they fight for that third win tonight.

Cape Girardeau, Missouri - Coach James Sneed of the Dexter Bearcat Wrestling program was proud to report the success of his wrestlers tonight as they traveled to Cape to take on the Notre Dame Bulldogs.  With the season in it's early stages, the Bearcats had a great showing Thursday night winning the dual by 78 to 18.

The team had top performances by several Bearcats including pins by James Mullins in the 120 pound weight class, Russell Dean in the 132 pound weight class, Ethan Stevens in the 145 pound weight class, and Damian Glasener  in the heavy weight division.  Trevor Waldner and Storm Massey also had a great matches winning by decision over the Notre Dames in the 138 and 126 pound weight class respectively.

Making weight is often a challenge in the early part of the season, but the Bearcats were able to fill all classes except the 106 pound division which was donated by forfeit to Notre Dame.  Notre Dame was unable to provide wrestlers for five of their weight divisions.

Recently, the panel of Southeast Missouri sportswriters released the names of the 2012 all-region high school football teams.

Among the list of many talented high school football players, were three members from the Dexter Bearcat Football Team.

Chase Noe, Chase Young, and Trevor Waldner all made the first team. Senior Chase Noe received first team for his position as defensive lineman, Junior Trevor Waldner for safety, and Senior Chase Young for the position of wide receiver.

Last night the three players and their coaches traveled to Poplar Bluff to attend the SEMO All-Conference Banquet.

In the picture above, the three players are shown with four of their coaches. In back row from left to right: Coach Cody Boyer, Coach James Sneed, and Coach Greg Lummukka. In front row from left to right: Chase Young, Chase Noe, Trevor Waldner, and Head Coach Aaron Pixley.

Congratulations to these three and their coaches for their hard fought season and for the honor of being picked to the first team all-conference. Also congratulations to their teammates Jonathan Foels and Ryan Joyner who made the second team defense.

Written by

Jessica Snider, SMT Writer

Tonight will be the season opener for the Dexter Bearcat boys’ basketball team. The Bearcats will take on Charleston at home in the Bearcat Event Center.

Dexter unfortunately got hit with injury before the season even started. Two of three returning starters are injured and will be out. Cody Neldon will be out all season, but senior Chase Young is hoping to be back on the court in the next few weeks.

The Bearcat team will be turning to a few younger members and also those who haven’t had much varsity playing time this season.  Varsity Coach Rob Nichols commented that this is one of the most inexperienced teams he’s ever coached, but has high hopes of the team working hard and gaining experience throughout the season.

The Dexter Bearcats start off with a rather tough schedule, as they take on both Charleston and Sikeston in the first week. Next week the Bearcats will travel for the Semo Conference Tournament, which always provides intense competition.

It will be a very competitive year for the Bearcats, but this team has proved through many practices that they will fight hard for victories.

We ask everyone that can to please come out tonight and support the Dexter Boys’ Basketball Team in their season opener tonight against Charleston.  The Junior Varsity Team will take the court first tonight at 6:00 P.M. in the Bearcat Event Center with the Varsity Team directly following.