Bulldogs set for St. Dominic Tournament

O'FALLON -- It's been a great Christmas for the Sikeston Bulldogs the past two years.

After opening presents and spending time with their families, the gifts have kept coming in the form of two Christmas tournament championships at the St. Dominic/Imo's Christmas tournament.

Top-seeded Sikeston will begin their quest for title No. 3 Wednesday, Dec. 26 at 3 p.m. against Lutheran, St. Charles at St. Dominic High School.

Since entering during the 2010-11 season, the Bulldogs are undefeated in tournament play.

Their success inside this bracket the last two years have helped his squad, according to Sikeston head coach Gregg Holifield, in that they get to see different competition than they normally would and that the teams they face usually put up a good fight.

"Our kids really enjoy it," he said. "It's a different look. St. Dominic puts on a great tournament and we're really pleased."

Sikeston, who are 8-0 and ranked first in the MBCA/MoSports.com rankings in Class 4, will play Lutheran, St. Charles during the first round.

Lutheran, the eighth seed, is the same team Sikeston defeated during last year's first round. They are 5-5 so far this season.

Other notable teams taking part in this years tournament are Ft. Zumwalt South, who is the No. 2 seed.

Ft. Zumwalt South stands at 6-2. They're two losses are to Hickman, who are state-ranked in Class 5, and Eureka. Ft. Zumwalt South will play Ft. Zumwalt West (2-4), the seventh seed, at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

The tournament host, St. Dominic, are 4-3 so far this season with loses to Borgia, St. Charles West and Oakville -- all three of those loses were by a combined 12 points. St. Dominic will play Holt (1-6), the sixth seed, at 7:30 p.m.

Sikeston defeated St. Dominic during last year's tournament finals.

"Both of them are good teams," Holifield said about Ft. Zumwalt South and St. Dominic. "They play great competition, so they're going to be a quality opponents if we get to play them. St. Dominic is a good basketball program. They played Borgia tough this year and they played us really tough last year in the finals."

Fourth-seeded Parkway North (4-2) and Timberland (4-3), the fifth seed will play at 4:30 p.m.

"It's a great tournament," Holifield said. "It's always good competition and we always enjoy it up there. We're looking forward to it. We just want to go up there, play well and put on a good showing."