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Dexter breezes past Cape Central and into district finals
SIKESTON -- Dexter is back in very familiar territory.
For the eighth-straight year the Bearcats will play for a district championship after cruising past Cape Central 66-30 Tuesday night at the Sikeston Field House during the Class 4, District 1 tournament semifinals.
Dexter has won six of the last seven district championships and the past four in a row.
"It's always exciting and always intense," Dexter junior Melanie McKuin said about Dexter playing in another district title game. "They're my favorite games. It's a lot of fun."
Dexter had four players in double figures led by freshman Hannah Thurmon's 18 points. Dakota Reynolds added 15 all from behind the arc, Krysten Garrison scored 11 and Melanie McKuin had 10.
Cape Central, who finishes their season at 9-17, was led by Sydney Tollison and Kassidy Pannier who each scored six points.
"It's definitely nice," Dexter head coach Chad Allen said about advancing to the finals. "Getting to that district championship game -- it's always tough."
Dexter (16-9) zoomed out to a 26-9 lead after the first quarter. Reynolds hit two 3-pointers, Garrison added another six points and Thurmon had five in the quarter to help Dexter out to its lightening quick start.
Thurmon also kept Cape Central's offense at a premium around the basket with four blocks in the first quarter.
The Bearcats did what they like to do and did it early. They ran the floor, created turnovers on defense and got buckets around the basket as well as open kick-outs to shooters on the outside.
"Tonight we got in a good groove. We got in a good shooting groove," McKuin said. "Hopefully we can get in that groove Friday night."
McKuin was the catalyst on most of Dexter's offensive possessions. McKuin, or fellow guard Reynolds, would survey the defense, decide to drive to the basket or shoot a wide open pass to either Garrison or Thurmon underneath or hit a shooter for a 3-pointer.
Dexter ended up with eight 3-point shots on the night led by Reynolds' five.
"Melanie and Dakota are such good guards. They can penetrate and create," Allen said. "When they're doing that, we're good. They definitely did a great job for us. (Krysten) Garrison and Hannah (Thurmon) I thought did a great job inside tonight."
With everything working in their favor, Dexter found itself ahead by a comfortable 39-19 margin at halftime. They extended that lead to as much as 34 points in the third quarter and went up by their biggest lead of 38 in the fourth. They led 57-23 going into the final frame.
"I thought we did good in spurts," Allen said. "We'd play really good for three or four minutes and then we would sort of stand around a little bit. But, I thought for the most part we played well today...We definitely shot the ball well tonight. Hopefully, we'll shoot the ball well going into the next game."
That next game will be a rematch of last week's five-point win against Sikeston on the same floor the championship game will be played. Dexter defeated Sikeston, who scratched out a 58-49 win over Notre Dame in the other semifinal, 55-50 last Thursday to give Sikeston it's first SEMO Conference loss of the year.
"They're going to bring their all and we have to bring our all," said McKuin about a possible contest with Sikeston. "It's going to be a fight the entire game. It'll be a good game if we keep the intensity up and keep playing hard."
The championship game is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m. but with possible winter weather moving into the area today, the title game may be postponed.
| Cape Central | 9 | 10 | 4 | 7 | -- | 30 |
| Dexter | 26 | 13 | 18 | 9 | -- | 66 |
CAPE CENTRAL (30) -- Sydney Tollison 6, Corrie Reece 2, Timia Evans 2, Katelyn May 3, Bailey Manley 3, Kassidy Pannier 6, Madison Daum 4, Abbie Reece 4. FG 11, FT 4-9, F 17. (3-pointers: Tollison 1, May 1, Pannier 2. Fouled out: Abby Shupert.)
DEXTER (66) -- Dakota Reynolds 15, Melanie McKuin 10, Syndey Rogers 2, Cheyenne Mosby 2, Hannah Thurmon 18, Katie Reiker 2, Krysten Garrison 11, Harley Allen 6. FG 24, FT 10-16, F 14. (3-pointers: Reynolds 5, Thurmon 1, Allen 2. Fouled out: none.)