Dexter, Missouri – The Dexter Bearcats scored 24 points in the fourth quarter to secure their victory over the Puxico Indians 66-59 Tuesday evening.
“I thought the first half we came out and laid down to be honest,” commented DHS head basketball coach Josh Dowdy. “But we showed some grit in the 3rd and 4th quarters and battled back. It’s been a while since we have won three in a row so hopefully we can keep this thing rolling.” Dexter defeated Bloomfield, Bernie and now Puxico. All Stoddard County teams.
Ethan Flowers tallied a game-high 25 points for Dexter. He hit five treys and in the fought back in the fourth quarter he scoring 12 points to defeat the Indians.
“Flowers had a great game for us,” Dowdy said. “He shot it well, but also handled the ball when we needed him to and secured some big rebounds.”
The Indians took their largest lead with about minute left in the third quarter forcing Dexter to either score or throw in the towel.
“We went on a 9-0 run to close out the third quarter to gain some momentum,” stated Dowdy. “We caused them some problems with our press. It definitely tilted the game in our direction, no question. The kids came to the sideline at the end of the third quarter ready to finish Puxico off in the fourth quarter.”Austin Chesser finished with 13 points. He made five of seven free throws he attempted. Jacob Pedigo and Jason Jarrell also were in double digits adding 12 points each.
“It is nice to see we have four guys in double digits for a second straight game,” Dowdy said. “It shows we know how to share the ball and we are unselfish. To win the county championship that’s what we will have to continue to do.”
Seth Luttrell hit 15 points for Puxico with Levi Woods tallying 13 more.
“Our goal was to create a pace to make their ball handlers perform instead of having them walk it down the floor and lob it to Tucker,” continued Dowdy. “He is a such a presence inside and a tough match-up for us. Puxico was much more hungrier than we were tonight.”
The SCAA Tournament begins on Monday, but before that the Bearcats must travel to New Madrid and play on Friday evening. Game time 6:00 p.m.
“We have to value each possession on offense and defense to be successful. We will have to play better next week when we meet them again in the first round of the SCAA Tournament,” Dowdy stated.
Third-seeded Dexter and sixth-seeded Puxico will meet again at 8:00 p.m. Monday, January 25th at Bloomfield in the quarterfinal of the SCAA Varsity Boys Basketball Tournament.
Final Score Dexter 66, Puxico 59
Puxico 14 13 18 14 - 59
Dexter 16 7 19 24 - 66
Puxico (59) – Levi Woods 13, Cory Pratt 6, Dalton King 2, Zach McCoy 7, Seth Luttrell 15, Jordan Burch 8, Zach Tucker 9. FG 25, FT 5/12, F 21. (3-pointers: Levi Woods 1, Cory Pratt 2, Seth Luttrell 1. Fouled Out: Zach Tucker.)
Dexter (66) – Jason Jarrell 12, Peyton Pollock 3, Jacob Pedigo 12, Austin Chesser 13, Ethan Flowers 25, Tyler Heil 1. FG 21, FT 18/27, F 16. (3-pointers: Ethan Flowers 5, Peyton Pollock 1, Fouled Out: Noah Kronk)
Dexter, Missouri – Two student athletes at Dexter High School earned top honors in football, but not for their athleticism. Jason Jarrell and Tyler Stevenson made Academic All-State.
"I am extremely proud of these young men. It is becoming more and more difficult to balance athletics and academics with the demands that both present,” commented head football coach Justin Peden. “Tyler and Jason are able to not only do this, but thrive in both the academic and athletic arenas.”
Students must maintain a 3.5 GPA, 25 on the ACT, and be in the Top 10% at their high school. Both of these gentlemen not only met those requirements, but also excelled in the football program.
“We actually had five or six guys barely miss the criteria,” continued Peden. “That is an indicator that young men in this town realize what is truly important. It is an honor to be associated with these young men.”
Dexter High School prides itself not only on athletic achievements, but academic achievements as well.
Congratulations to Jason Jarrell and Tyler Stevenson. The Dexter community is extremely proud of you and your accomplishments.
Bernie, Missouri – Bernie Mules hosted the Dexter Bearcats Friday evening for their annual Basketball Homecoming game and were defeated 66 – 54.
“When I first took over as head coach, Noah Kronk said to me, ‘you know coach I have played basketball for a long time and I have never beaten Bernie and that’s what I want,” stated head coach Josh Dowdy. “And it looked like he fought for it tonight defending Ellenburg.”
Kronk and his fellow Bearcats achieved that goal after trailing at half-time 31-30. Four Dexter athletes hit double digits.
“We got a win against Bloomfield earlier in the week and just wanted to keep that energy going,” stated Dowdy. “We challenged the kids all week to make a statement. We haven’t had a whole lot of wins, but we knew we were correcting some things along the way. We didn’t know if it was going to come tonight, but we thought it might even be next year to be honest. Man it was sweet and I am just so proud of these kids.”
Ethan Flowers tallied a game-high 22 points for Dexter including four 3-pointers. Jacob Pedigo paced Dexter with 15 points. Austin Chesser recorded 13 points including three treys and Jason Jarrell added 10 points for the Bearcats.
Dexter shot well from the charity stripe hitting 21 of the 24 free throws attempted. 18 of 20 came in the forth quarter alone.
“We tried to get the ball to our best free throw shooters,” commented Dowdy. “We shoot about 70% from the free throw line so it is definitely a strength of ours and comforting down the stretch when they start to foul.”
Brandon Sparks had a team-high 15 points before fouling out early in the fourth quarter. He also hit three treys for Bernie. Matt Vernon tallied 10 points including two 3-pointers.
Kronk and his teammates held Bernie’s leading scorer of the season thus far, Caleb Ellenburg, to just seven points.
“Noah started on him (Ellenburg) and when Noah needed a breather we brought in Pollock,” Dowdy said. “Our two football players came in there and played some defense.”
Dexter and Bernie are 3-1 in regular season SCAA play. Dexter will host Puxico on Tuesday, January 20th and Bernie will host Bloomfield. Game times are both 6:00 p.m.
Final Score Dexter 66, Bernie 54
Dexter 19 11 6 30 - 66
Bernie 15 16 8 15 - 54
Dexter (66) – Jason Jarrell 10, Jacob Pedigo 15, Austin Chesser 13, Ethan Flowers 22, Noah Kronk 6. FG 19, FT 21/24, F 11. (3-pointers: Ethan Flowers 4, Austin Chesser 3. Fouled Out: None),
Bernie (54) – Blake Gilmore 4, Matt Vernon 10, Login Wood 3, Brandon Sparks 15, Caleb Ellenburg 7, Alex Whitehead 3, Devin Trammell 9, Gavin Smith 3. FG 21, FT 3/5, F 20. (3-pointers: Brandon Sparks 3, Matt Vernon 2, Devin Trammell 2, Login Wood 1, Alex Whitehead 1. Fouled Out: Ellenburg, Sparks)
Neelyville, Missouri – The Lady ‘Cats battled it out with the state-ranked Neelyville Lady Tigers Thursday evening. Tied 57-57, the Bearcats took a shot a little too early with just seconds left on the clock giving Shelby Moon enough time to hit a bucket sealing the win for the Lady Tigers.
“The girls played well tonight. We were down by 8 at one point and 5 points etc, but battled back to just two and even tied at times,” commented Dexter head girls basketball coach Chad Allen. “We took that shot a little too early and Moon was able to make two at the end.”
Neelyville scored the first seven points of the ball game. The Lady Tigers were 16/16 at the free throw line in the first half executing all of their points from the charity stripe.
“We fought back and the girls kept their composure,” continued Allen. “It was a big game of runs and a good game for us. We told the girls that we are going to have close games. We just have to execute and we went a little quick there at the end, but we keep getting better.”
The Lady Cats led 39-36 before Shelby Moon hit a trey from about 45 feet at the buzzer to tie things up 39-39 going into halftime.
“We gave Moon too many looks in the first half.,” stated Allen. “We matched up better in the second half and were more aggressive. We lost to a good team on their home floor.”
Shelby Moon paced the Lady Tigers with a game-high 26 points including six 3-pointers. She scored 17 points in the first half.
“We tried to contain Moon from the 3-point line,” Allen said. “She didn’t get many looks in the second half. Our girls played pretty hard and were very physical in the 2nd half.”
Dakota Reynolds hit three treys for Dexter and finished with 15 points. Krysten Garrison scored 14 points and Melanie McKuin tallied 13 points.
Harley Allen hit a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter to help close the gap with Neelyville.
Dexter drops to 8-5 and will return to action on Monday, January 18th when they visit state-ranked Park Hills Central.
“We’ve got some tough teams coming up. Park Hills and St. Joe Academy are both good teams. We will have to work on a few things next week. Park Hills depends a lot on their two sisters where Neelyville is more guard oriented. The Skaggs twins pound it inside for Park Hills and we don’t want to give them too many looks on the inside,” state Allen.
“Even as a coach you learn from games. A lot is my fault too in some of these games. As long as we are getting better each game and are battle tested by the time play-offs get here we have done our job.”
Final score Neelyville 59, Dexter 57
Dexter 12 27 10 8 - 57
Neelyville 16 23 15 5 - 59
Dexter, Missouri – The JV Cats had the edge and were ahead by 10 going into the fourth quarter, but Bloomfield rallied from behind to win 42-38.
It was Dexter leading 16-14 going into the half. They managed to continue their lead in the 3rd quarter 33 – 23 scoring 17 points. The Wildcats came alive in the 4th period scoring 19 points.
Tim Hector scored a team-high14 points including two 3-pointers for Bloomfield’s junior varsity team. Austin Phillips finished with 9 points. Joe Clary added two treys.
Jacob Hector hit a field goal with less than one minute of play to put Bloomfield on top 40 – 38.
Dexter’s Gabe Jackson tallied a game-high 16 points. Kole Kelley added one trey.
Final Score Bloomfield 42, Dexter 38
Bloomfield 5 8 10 19 - 42
Dexter 10 6 17 5 - 38
Bloomfield (42) – Tim Hector 14, Kyle Anderson 2, Jerry Craft 2, Joe Clary 6, Jacob Hector 6, Austin Philips 9, Matt Gibbs 3. FG 15, FT 8/13, F 18. (3-pointers: Tim Hector 2, Joe Clary 2. Fouled Out: None).
Dexter (38) – Kole Kelley 3, Peyton Tinnin 2, Trevor McDonald 3, Ben Sindle 6, Ryan Mayo 5, Bo McMullin 3, Gabe Jackson 16. FG 16, FT 5/10, F 17. (3-pointers: Kelley 1. Fouled Out: None)
