Strong showing

Sikeston varsity and JV win brackets

sd_sports@yahoo.com

DEXTER -- Wrapping up the Rib City Shootout Saturday afternoon, both Sikeston's varsity and jayvee squads came away with strong showings as both won the championship in their respective brackets.

"I thought we had good energy and effort," Bulldog's varsity coach Gregg Holifield said. "I thought we played as a team both offensively and defensively.

"Our objective is to play hard and play as a team on both ends of the court and I thought at times we did that."

Saturday's portion of the two-day event featured three brackets with eight teams each in a single-elimination tournament with each game consisting of two 15-minute halves.

The Bulldog's varsity easily strolled to the championship game opening up with a win over the Bloomfield Wildcats varsity, followed by a 80-32 romp over Twin Rivers varsity to advance to the championship game.

There, they would play third-seeded New Madrid County Central, winning 73-34 to claim their bracket.

"We were allowed to create some turnovers," Holifield said. "From that perspective I thought we were able to do a good job to build a lead."

"We have some work to do. We're not very big and we're undersized in some spots, but we got guys that will work hard and get the job done."

While he would have liked to have gone out with a win, NMCC coach Travis Day said he was happy the tournament was able to give his team some added experience before the upcoming season starts.

"We just wanted to come out, compete and play hard," he said. "This is a new squad.

"We lost our leaders from last year so right now we're trying to find our identity so it's going to take us a little time."

As for Sikeston's jayvee squad, the Bulldogs advanced past West Plains jayvee and Puxico's varsity to play Richland's varsity in the finals, beating the Rebels 54-47 to win the bracket.

Rounding out the results, the hosting Dexter Bearcats varsity won their bracket by beating Holcomb's varsity 48-30 in the championship game.