Lady 'Cats pull away from Sikeston in make-up game

DEXTER -- Sikeston's girls basketball team suffered another tough loss on Friday night, falling to Dexter in a make-up game, 48-31.

"We gave up too many rebounds and missed too many easy shots," said Sikeston coach Lee Brooks. "We had our opportunities and have nobody to blame but ourselves. It has been that way most of the season."

The Lady Bulldogs played Dexter tough in the early stages as the first quarter ended in a 6-6 tie.

But Dexter opened the second quarter on a 12-0 run, and Sikeston never recovered.

"This was big for us," said Dexter coach Gavin Miller. "It was a Friday night game, we had the radio for the first time ever and we had a pretty good crowd. I'm just proud of the girls for working hard. They just kept fighting."

Jennifer Medlin ended Sikeston's scoring drought with 3:18 left in the second period, hitting a 3-pointer. Hannah Burleson scored a layup for Dexter, then Medlin hit a 12-footer. Paige Silverthorn followed with a steal and layup to cut the lead down to seven points.

Any momentum the Lady Bulldogs gained was quickly lost though, as Amy Rose hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Dexter a 23-13 halftime lead.

In the third period, Hannah Burleson hit two 3-pointers as Dexter outscored Sikeston 8-7. Amy Krapu led the Lady Bearcats in the fourth quarter as Dexter outscored Sikeston 17-11 to pull out the 17-point victory.

"You look at the final score, and to a lot of people, it's a wide margin of victory," said Miller. "But I kept my starters in there until there was about a minute and a half left. That was a tough, physical game. (Sikeston) has a good group of young girls coming back. They're going to be tough to handle the next several years."

Medlin led all Sikeston scorers with 11 points. Silverthorn contributed eight. Joy Daniel was held to just three points and Kerri Jones was held scoreless in the loss.

"This team lacks leadership," said Brooks. "We need somebody to say, 'get on my back, I'll take you there.' When we do decide to play hard, we don't really have a go-to player. When we go to certain people, on that particular night they seem to come up lacking. That's the way it is. We want to lick our wounds when we should be playing basketball."

Sikeston falls to 6-9 with the loss and will travel to Kennett on Monday. The Lady Bulldogs will then host Notre Dame on Wednesday and NMCC on Thursday.

For Dexter, Rachel Blunt led the way with 17 points. Amy Rose finished with 10.

The Lady Bearcats improve to 13-3 and will travel to Puxico on Monday.

In Friday's junior varsity game, Sikeston defeated Dexter 34-33. Robyne Morris paced the Lady Bulldogs with 16 points, followed by Amber Anthony with 10.

Natalie Hayes led all Dexter scorers with 16.