March 5, 2016
Sikeston holds off rival Cape Central for Class 4, District 1 title
In a thrilling Class 4, District 1 championship game, Sikeston defeated Cape Central 59-55 in front of a standing room-only crowd of nearly 3,000 fans that packed into the Sikeston Field House.
By Derek James ~ Standard Democrat
sports@standard-democrat.com
SIKESTON -- Sikeston and Cape Central have waged numerous battles over the years in district play, but perhaps none of them matched the physical intensity of Friday night's game.
In a thrilling Class 4, District 1 championship game, Sikeston defeated Cape Central 59-55 in front of a standing room-only crowd of nearly 3,000 fans that packed into the Sikeston Field House.
The victory avenges Sikeston's only loss of the season and advances them to the sectional round where they will play Ste. Genevieve (17-11) on Tuesday at Jackson High School at 7:45 p.m.
Cape Central, which entered the game ranked sixth in the state in Class 4, saw its season end at 21-7.
The district championship is Sikeston's first since 2013 and the school's 23rd overall -- 10 of them coming under head coach Gregg Holifield.
"It's incredible," Sikeston senior Dominique Dyes said. "The feeling the last two years and not being able to enjoy this moment, and now we do. It's just incredible."
For Cape Central, it was a heart-breaking end to a hard-fought game against one of its biggest rivals.
"It was a battle -- it was a physical game," Cape Central coach Drew Church said. "I thought if the ball bounced a little bit differently here or there, the game's different. But Sikeston's a heck of a team, man. They're hard to guard. I got the upmost respect for Gregg and his staff and I really think they're going to represent our district well moving on."
The game came down to the final minutes.
Cape Central superstar Al Young scored with 1:56 left to trim the Sikeston lead to 50-49, but 19 seconds later, Sikeston's standout sophomore Fred Thatch answered on the other end when he put back his own miss to increase the lead to three.
When the Tigers missed a shot on the ensuing trip, the ball was knocked out of bounds but Cape Central maintained possession.
But Sikeston freshman Kevin Jones stole the inbounds pass and scored a heavily contested transition layup to extend the lead to 54-49 with 58 seconds left.
The Tigers' Tevyn Wright-Hunt scored an offensive putback with 37 seconds left to pull his team back to a three-point deficit.
Cape Central immediately started fouling to force Sikeston to make its free throws.
Dyes did the job, making two straight to increase the lead to five.
Cape Central sophomore Austin Parker then scored inside with 12 seconds left, but Church used his last timeout in the process.
After the timeout, once again Dyes was fouled and once again he drained both free throws to give the Bulldogs a 58-53 lead with 10 seconds left.
Needing a quick basket, the Tigers caught a break when Young drew a foul on Dyes after he was screened into Young bringing the ball up the floor.
Young made both free throws to pull the Tigers to within three.
One final time Cape Central fouled Dyes on the ensuing possession. With four seconds left and the senior made the first and missed the second. Wright-Hunt's final 3-point try was off the mark and the celebration was on for Sikeston.
Dyes hit 5 of 6 from the line in the final 36 seconds.
"No pressure at all," Dyes said. "I've been in tough games. I've been in big moments. No pressure at all. It was like I was in the gym by myself. We work on them every day."
But what about the last miss?
"The last one I missed it on purpose just to make them touch the ball and run the time out. So I think I did a smart play there, but I'm not sure," Dyes said with a laugh.
But the game itself was not all laughs for Sikeston.
The Tigers, which handed Sikeston its only loss on Feb. 12, continued to baffle the potent Bulldog offense with its physical style of play.
The Bulldogs average 78 points per game, but were held to 63 points in the February loss and they were held to their second-lowest output on Friday.
"We keyed in on their main scorers and watched a lot of film," Young said. "We practiced hard this week and it just sucks to go back home with an 'L'. We just made sure to play with them at their level and made sure they didn't go crazy from the 3-point line."
Sikeston was a season-worst 2 of 21(10 percent) from 3-point range. The Tigers held the Bulldogs to 23 of 56 (41 percent) shooting from the field.
"We just try to guard -- we try to make their 3's tough and make everything inside tough," Church said. "I don't know that there's a magic recipe. Our kids are just tough. We try to make things hard and we try to make games ugly."
The Tigers fell behind in the early going.
Cape Central's Zyshon Mallory scored inside to cut the Sikeston lead to 14-12, but Thatch hit a jumper and Dyes drained a 3-pointer from the left corner to give his team a 19-12 advantage after one quarter of play.
Sikeston freshman Trey Jenkins, who entered the game in place of senior Juwon Kimble who was battling foul problems, immediately had an impact as he scored on an offensive putback to give the Bulldogs a 21-12 lead to start the second quarter.
Kimble later re-entered the game and matched the Bulldogs' biggest lead when he scored and was fouled with 3:40 left. He missed the free throw but Sikeston led 26-17.
Kimble finished with a game-high 17 points on 7 of 9 shooting with five rebounds. But when Kimble went to the bench for stretches, including eventually fouling out in the fourth quarter, Jenkins proved to be vital for the Bulldogs.
The 6-foot-6 Jenkins finished with two points, five rebounds and three blocked shots.
"Trey was great out there," Kimble said. "It looked like it was second nature out there. He was grabbing rebounds, blocking shots -- just doing whatever it takes to win the game."
Cape Central was able to close the half strong, going on a 6-2 run to slice the lead to 28-23 by halftime.
The Tigers quickly seized the momentum at the start of the third quarter as Parker went baseline for a two-handed dunk and Wright-Hunt hit a 3-pointer to tie the game for the first time.
Kimble scored six points to keep the lead for the Bulldogs, but the Tigers' Mallory gave his team the lead for the first, and only time, after a steal and slam dunk at 36-35 with 3:37 left in the third.
Dyes hit two of three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt to reclaim the lead for the Bulldogs.
Then Kimble and Thatch each had offensive putbacks and senior Marquan Nelson hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give Sikeston a 44-36 lead with 49 seconds left.
Wright-Hunt answered with a 3-pointer to cut Sikeston's lead to 44-39 at the end of the third quarter.
Sikeston maintained its lead throughout the fourth but not without a couple late runs by the Tigers.
Cape Central's best chance came when Kimble fouled out on an offensive foul, and then was whistled for a technical foul after arguing the call with 2:54 left.
Young sank both free throws and then scored on the ensuing free possession to cut the lead to 50-49.
But Sikeston was able to hold on down the stretch buoyed by Dyes' clutch free throws.
"They ended our football season and then they beat us earlier in the year so we were like, 'man we've got to do this. We've got to do this for everybody.' And that's what we did," Dyes said.
Like Sikeston, Cape Central struggled from the field as well, shooting 19 of 46 (41 percent) overall and just 2 of 12 (17 percent) from 3-point range.
"It's almost identical to what I thought it would be," Holifield said. "They came in and played tough. They played physical. They've got great bodies. They're quick at every position and they're strong at every position. Our guys had to gut it out and to our credit I thought our kids responded well. Defensively we played well and did a good job taking away easy buckets for them. Everything they got, most of them, it was earned."
Young, who torched the Bulldogs with 23 points and 13 rebounds in February, finished with 14 points in his final game in a Cape Central uniform.
He struggled from the field Friday night, going 4 of 13 (31 percent), but he was 6 of 6 from the free throw line.
"There wasn't really much different [than last game]," Young said. "They just wanted it more than we did. They battled harder and made tough shots. You couldn't really do too much about it. The rivalry is fun. I just love playing Sikeston. All the trash talk, it's fun to me. I like it. I'm not really a social media person but I like reading the trash talk. It's really fun having this big rivalry."
Dyes finished with 16 points, five assists and four rebounds.
Thatch added 15 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and three steals.
"It's my first district title," Thatch said. "When you're a kid you always dream about state, but most kids don't understand you've got to win districts and sectionals and so on before you get to state, so it's the first step to one of my dreams."
Sikeston continued its home dominance this year. The Bulldogs finished the season 12-0 at the Field House. Sikeston is an impressive 100-9 over the last nine seasons at home, with six of those losses coming last year.
"It's just an amazing feeling seeing the crowd roar and cheer you on," Kimble said. "It was just a big sea of red out there. It was a great game. There's a lot of physical players out there. I don't think I've ever played in a game this physical ever. But it was a great one."
Holifield, who has defeated Cape Central 20 of 28 times the two teams have met in his tenure at Sikeston, credits his team's success to the hometown fans.
"It's the best fans in the state of Missouri, no doubt," Holifield said. "They come in and they support. They support on a Tuesday night in January. They support in the district championship. They travel with us. That's just who they are. I can't say enough about them. They put our kids to a different level and I don't even know if they know how important they are. Because teams don't have this. Our crowd is different than anybody in the state. I take special pride in our program."
Cape Central 12 11 16 16 -- 55
Sikeston 19 9 16 15 -- 59
CAPE CENTRAL (55) -- Al Young 14, Zyshon Mallory 9, Jawone Newell 9, Austin Parker 9, Tevin Wright-Hunt 8, Blake Harris 6. FG 19, FT 15-20, F 13. (3-pointers: Wright-Hunt 2. Fouled out: none).
SIKESTON (59) -- Juwon Kimble 17, Dominique Dyes 16, Fred Thatch 15, Kevin Jones 6, Marquan Nelson 3, Trey Jenkins 2. FG 23, FT 11-15, F 18. (3-pointers: Dyes 1, Nelson 1. Fouled out: Kimble).
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