Dexter girls hoping to get over district hump

DEXTER - The Dexter Lady Bearcats basketball team will have a good mixture of youth and experience for the upcoming season.

Dexter has the made the Class 4, District 1 final the past four seasons and head coach Gavin Miller is building one of the strongest programs in the area.

Last season, the Lady Bearcats lost to Fredericktown in the district final by two points and finished the year at 20-6.

"It was a disappointing season last year," said Miller. "Any time you end your season not at the pinnacle of your sport, it is very disappointing. We did have high expectations last year. I thought we played well enough to win a district title midway through last season, but things did not pan out for us. Hopefully the girls that are back from last year's team still have that bitter taste in their mouth this year."

Despite losing leading scorer Taylor Nelson to graduation, Dexter returns junior Amanda Dooley and two players with three years of varsity experience, in seniors Haylee Finch and Molly Burleson.

Nelson was a first team All-State performer last year for Dexter averaging 17 points and eight rebounds per game. Another loss for the Lady Bearcats is 5-

foot-11 Bailey Stanley who decided not to play basketball this year.

"Instead of putting all the scoring burden on one player," said Miller, "we are going to have a bullpen by committee. I feel like several girls are going to step up. I have some sophomores that got a lot of experience playing in the district tournament last year. I really like our sophomores. They are not afraid and they're very confident in their abilities on the floor."

Miller expects Finch and Dooley to step up their respective games this season. Finch (5-7) is now fully recovered from a knee injury that hampered her performance last year. With a feathery outside touch and strong inside play, Finch should have a breakout senior season.

Dooley (5-11) was selected to the second team All-Region team in Class 4 after averaging 10 points and seven rebounds per game as a sophomore. Dooley has a lethal post game and is equally as dangerous with the 15-foot jumper.

Miller concedes that without Stanley his squad is lacking some height down in the paint.

"We are going to be a little under-manned as far as size," said Miller. "We are going to lose some height without Stanley. Dooley is going to be our experienced post player. Ashley Taylor reminds me a little of Nelson with her savvy down low. She is very physical and understands the game. Ashley is not as tall as Taylor but she will be okay in the post."

Dexter does not have any six-footers but with Dooley, Taylor (5-9), Abby Reiker (5-8) and the Heil twins; Katelyn (5-9) and Cathryn (5-8), the Lady Bearcats have depth in the paint.

At the guard positions, Burleson (5-4) will see time at point guard, juniors Sammy Waldner (5-6) and Brooke Thrower (5-4) also will rotate in the backcourt.

Miller believes at the start of the year his team might struggle with the outside shot.

"We seem to struggle when we are left open for a jump shot," said Miller. "We have to get in the paint, get hit by somebody and bounce the ball off the glass for our shots to go down. We are going to struggle shooting the ball until we can really get in the groove of the season."

Expectations are always high in the community but outside Dexter, big things are not expected due to the loss of Nelson and the looming question of how Finch responds from her knee injury.

"A lot of people are going to overlook us and not pick us to win many games this year," said Miller. "That is fine, maybe that is what we need a little bit. I like the way the girls are working hard and we should be fine this year."

The low expectations for the Lady Bearcats is also due to the fact that Class 4, District 1 is top-heavy with quality teams. Defending champion Fredericktown returns second team all-stater Courtney Kemp and All-Region selection 6-1 Betsy Royer.

Notre Dame returns its two best players with second team all-stater Kristain Burger and second team all-region player Meridith Medlin. Ste Genevieve returns its entire starting lineup from a season ago.

Miller understands his squad might not be the favorites heading into the season, however he likes the girls' attitude and work ethic in practice and believes his team might be due for a championship season.

"We have played in four straight district title games and have won only one," said Miller. "It is starting to leave a pretty sour taste in my mouth. The first couple of years I blamed it on youth and for the program never being there. Now people know who we are and we have got to start to do things right to get a championship."

The Lady Bearcats will begin the season on the road at Perryville on Monday at 6 p.m.