Not long into the contest, fans could quickly see that that this was going to be a tight basketball game. Neither team could open up a large spread in the score with each of the first three quarters ending with Bloomfield having a 1-point lead at the end of one and tied at the end of quarter two and three (27 and 40 respectively).
Bloomfield looked to have a slight upper hand in the first quarter as Austin Williamson (6-points) and Thomas Sanders (5-points) led the way for the Wildcats. Caleb Baker hit a nice 3-point shot in the opening quarter, along with Austin Battles adding two free throws.
The Bearcats answered within one point of Bloomfield as Chase Young (6) and DJ Dowdy (4) delivered strong aggressive moves to the basket. Potts was very quick to spin from the high post and move down the lane to add 5-points for the 'Cats.
Both teams matched their defensive performances only allowing 11-points for the quarter. Bloomfield's Zac Good found an open area on the court, adding three back-to-back three-point shots during the quarter. Dowdy and Young both had a three-pointer each in the quarter combined with a couple of points by Potts and Jordan Miller, leaving the half time score tied at 27.
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Dexter spread the offensive game in the third quarter among five players. Zac Good for the Wildcats found yet another 3-pointer and Brett Ruch was able to break the ice on his offensive game. Both teams scoring 13-points, the game entered the final quarter with the score Dexter 40 and Bloomfield 40.The fourth quarter was a free-for-all as both teams worked hard to attack the basket. Brett Ruch lead the Wildcats with 5-points in the quarter and Caleb Baker found another 3-point shot late in the game from the right corner.
If you think that the time spent practicing free throws doesn't matter, double check that with Dexter Bearcat coach, Rob Nichols. His Bearcat team was 10 for 13 (near 77%) in the last quarter to win the game by a final score of 52 to 48. Bearcats' Dowdy, Potts and Miller were two for two while Chase Young made four of six shots from the charity stripe to help ensure the victory.
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"We didn't do enough things right down the stretch to be successful on the road tonight," commented Bloomfield's Head Coach Jason Karnes. "We have got to find a level of consistency between our effort and execution for us to be competitive in a tough stretch of games coming up for us."Bloomfield will return home this coming Friday to take on the Malden Greenwaves. The Bearcats will take their game on the road to Bernie.
Junior Varsity:
The junior varsity teams were equally a good match up of talent between the two teams. The Bearcats opened slowly in the first quarter, but powered back in the second quarter with 14-points to hold a 19 to 16 lead at half time. Dexter continued to expand their lead in the 2nd half winning the game by a score of 42 to 39.
Jacob Pedigo and Chandler Young shared the top spot of the scoring column for the Bearcats with 10-points each. They were joined by a strong performance by Ethan Flowers with 8-points, Austin Aldridge with 5 and Cole Renken with 4. Kendrick McCullough lead the Wildcats with 21-points. Cole McClard and Nathan Newell each kicked in 6-points, Nathan Vandiver had 4-points and Austin Bond had 2-points.
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Brittany Harris paced the Lady Bearcats in scoring with 19, followed by Allison Jarrell with 18 points. Paige Patterson added 17 and Hannah Noe rounded out the four players in double figures with 16. With the win, Dexter improved to 13-1 on the season.The Dexter girls basketball coach Chad Allen said the game plan was to attack Kennett from the inside-out from the get-go. "Coming into this game I knew Kennett was down a little bit from previous years," Allen said. "For the most part we knew they had lost a lot of size inside and we really wanted to try to get the ball inside. I thought Paige Patterson and Brittany Harris definitely finished real well inside."
Essex, Missouri - The Richland Rebel Basketball Team played another great game tonight. Both coaches and every team member left with a smile on their faces tonight. The team must still be on fire from their win on Friday night, January 4th, against the Bell City Cubs. Tonight, the Rebels played a fiery game against the Woodland Cardinals.
When the game first started, the Rebels easily took the tipoff due to senior Richard Forshee (#50), while the Rebels scored the first points of the game. The Cardinals effortlessly caught up to the home team, which made the crowd sit on the edge of their seats. This is the first game the Rebels have played against the Cardinals since last season. The Cardinals took the lead due to multiple fouls called on the opposite team. Woodland sunk each free throw with ease and ended the first quarter at 12 to 9.
During the second quarter, both teams struggled with their defense. Richland couldn’t seem to make a valid pass and the ball was easily swiped by the other team. Forshee caught many rebounds for his team but sophomore Marcus Grayson also snatched the ball multiple times and ran it down the court for a layup. With Richland pressing for tougher defense against their opponent and senior Nick Daniels sinking free throws left and right, the Rebels stole the second quarter right out from under Woodland. Halftime began with the score of 28 to 13, with the home team in the lead.
Every home game, the Pep Club (the Rebel Rousers) has agreed to have ‘theme’ nights. Tonight’s game was “Crazy Hair Day” and each member put on a wig or tied their hair up in various ways. Music and Band Director, Amber Duley, came up with this idea that makes each home game more exciting and fun for both the visitors and the fans from home.
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Aside from the Rebel Rousers and their undeniable school spirit, the Pep Band made another wonderful performance that was also led by Duley. The high school band, along with the junior high band, use some of their class time during the school day and donate it to Pep Band as they learn new songs that they think the crowd will know and enjoy. Tonight’s medley consisted of Proud Mary, Seven Nation Army, Another One Bites the Dust, and the Richland classic: Go Big Red./Richland Team Mid2.jpg)
After the Pep Band’s performance, the second half of the game began with the crowd excited and anxious to see the turn out. The game had previously flipped back and forth between both teams but the third quarter is where Richland really stepped up and secured the lead. Both Daniels and Grayson were having a fantastic night and the ball seemed to go into the net nearly every time they threw it. Sophomore Skyler Harper also made a great effort in receiving nearly ever pass and helping his teammates get closer to the hoop. The third quarter ended with a score of 54 to 30, which made the Rebel fans go wild.
During the fourth quarter, Richland kept a thirty point gap between them and the Cardinals. They held a strong and hard lead for most of the quarter but began to slip and let up on their defense while becoming a bit lazy with their passing just like the beginning of the game. Senior Jesse Barnes and Grayson helped get the ball back as they continued to score for the Rebels.
The Rebels took their second win in a row with a final score of 74 to 49. The team and fans are excited and hope to see another Big W at their next game on Thursday, January 10th, at Gideon. They are also preparing for their Homecoming Game that will take place on January 18th, in Richland’s gymnasium at 6:00pm, where the Rebels will be taking on the Zalma Bulldogs.
Dee Loflin, SMT Writer
Dexter, Missouri - The girls' NSSC Volleyball Team was at Oakville High School, a suburb of south St. Louis this past weekend. The "Jammin' in January" tournament consisted of eight teams competing for the title.
Katie Niemczyk coaching for the girls as they played the Rockwood Thunder Volleyball Club, a powerhouse out of St. Louis. The girls went 6-0 in pool play and 5-1 in tournament play. They won first place in the gold division with a final set of 18-16.
This is an awesome group of girls who are from the Dexter, Advance and Marble Hill area. The NSSC Club teaches the girls to develop self-discipline, confidence and personal growth and to take pride in themselves and their team.
Volleyball is a great sport that can be enjoyed at all ages. Please support this group of talented athletes as their next tournament is Saturday, January 12th in Belleville, Illinios.
St. Louis, Missouri -The Dexter Wrestling team traveled to Park Hills Central High School early Saturday morning to compete in the 13th Annual Central Invitational Dual meet. Though the travel distance is always a struggle for the team, the competition found at this tournament is well worth the effort for the Bearcat athletes to build their skills for post season action.
The Park Hills Tournament is a highly competitive twelve team tournament with many of the teams coming from St. Louis area. As a one-day, twelve team tournament, a unique tournament format is required to make certain that all matches can be completed.
To do this, the twelve high school wrestling teams that are divided up into four wrestling pools of three teams to make up the first round matches. These matches basically operate in a team style dual tournament format with the top two teams from each pool advancing to the second level of the tournament.
With eight teams remaining, the Bearcats were set to compete against Brentwood High School. The Bearcats defeated them by a score of 60-24 advancing to the next round against the Park Hill Central Rebels.
The Park Hills contest proved to be the most exciting dual of the day as the Bearcats only held a slight lead over Park Hills of 33 to 31. With only two matches remaining, freshman Storm Massey (120 lb) defeated Dillon Ball by an overtime score of 2-0 giving the Bearcats a 36-31 lead going into the final match.
The last match of the dual pitted Dexter's James Mullins and Central’s Jonathan Goheed in the 126 pound weight division. With time expiring in the match, Mullins found a third period flurry of moves to score a reversal with back points. Those points were just enough to give Mullins an 8-7 victory in his match but also secured the 39-31 team win for the Bearcats.
Poised for the finals against the Desoto Dragons, the Bearcats found the competition to be difficult dropping the dual to the Dragons by a score of 49-28. The loss gave the Bearcats a second place finish in the tournament for the second year in a row.
"Overall, it was a good day for the Bearcat wrestling program," noted Head Coach James Sneed.
Junior, Trevor Waldner has been dominate on the mat tallying up 5 wins on the day and moving his record this season to 26 -1. Trevor's only loss came in the prestigious Tiger Classic Tournament when he was defeated by a score of 13-4 by Tyler Rush of the Jackson Indians.
"Sophmores Jason Mattison and Dylan Bazarian had a great day today," added Sneed. "They were all 5-0 on the day, while freshman James Mullins was 4-0 but was unable to wrestle in the finals due to back spasms.
vs Festus Tigers:
The Bearcats had a great showing in the matches against the Festus Tigers. Of the 14 overall matches, the Bearcats were gifted 5 matches by forfeit accounting for over half of the team points. The Festus team was unable to fill these weight classes for the competition forfeiting to Bearcat's Ty Harmon (132), Jason Mattison (195), Keith Craft (285), Brandon Twomey (106) and Storm Massey (120).
Trevor Walder led off for the Bearcats and captured a pin over the Tigers Kade Stevenson in the 138# weight class. In the 145# weight class, freshman Ethan Stevens stepped in to pin Caleb Shepard at the 3:10 mark of his match.
These two wins were follow by Dylan Bazarian's impressive pin of Nathan Miller of Festus only 0:37 seconds into the first period of the 152 # weight division. Dexter's 128 pounder James Mullins pinned his opponent, Steven Williams in the second period and Steven Parks (113) was victorious pinning Toni Shephard only one minute into his match.
Bearcats won the dual against the Festus Tigers by a score of 60 to 24.
vs DeSoto Dragons:
The Bearcats found a much more stiff competitor in the DeSoto High School Dragons. The Bearcats lost to the Dragons by a score of 49 to 28.
Dylan Bazarian continued his winning ways as he pinned 152 pound Randy West of DeSoto in the first period. In the 195# weight class, Jason Mattison also won his second match of the day as he stuck Dominic Huskey very quickly at the 0:27 second mark of the first period.
Two other Bearcats, Logan Quertermous (182) and Storm Massey (120) raised their hand without a match as DeSoto forfeited these weight divisions.
The big match of the day was in the 138 pound weight division as Dexter's Trevor Waldner was pitted against DeSoto's Logan Ott. The match went to the full distance of three 2-minute periods. Waldner came out the winner defeating Ott in a tough battle by a score of 11-1.
NEXT MATCHES:
The Bearcats wrestling team will be back in action on January 15th as Dexter will host Anna/Jonesboro (IL) and Festus here at the Dexter High School gymnasium. Matches will begin at 5:00 PM.
The 'Cats Grapplers will remain busy as they prepare for the 2-day SEMO Conference Tournament on January 18th and 19th.
