December 15, 2015
Dyes continues rapid start, leads Sikeston to 71-36 win over Greene Co. Tech
"I've got a since of urgency. I know this is my senior year so I'm just after that state championship. That's what's keeping me pushing every day."
By Chris Pobst - Standard Democrat
sports@standard-democrat.com
SIKESTON -- Dominique Dyes is taking each shot with the confidence of an all-state player.
If he keeps this pace up, he may just become one.
Dyes once again led the Bulldogs on Tuesday night as Sikeston defeated visiting Greene County Tech, Ark., 71-36 at the Sikeston Field House.
The 5-10 senior scored a game-high 25 points and continued his dynamite shooting from the outside avenging a 68-61 road loss last season to the Golden Eagles.
"Coach and my teammates give me confidence every day in practice," Dyes said. "Today, I didn't shoot very well in practice or during warmups, but they kept telling me to keep shooting."
After missing his first two 3-point attempts, Dyes went 5 for 6 from downtown. He scored 12 points in the opening quarter.
"I started off missing my first few, but they just kept telling me to shoot," Dyes said. "Coach talked to me about confidence and that's what kept me going. Once I hit one of them, I knew the rest was going in."
So far, Dyes is leading Sikeston with an average of 20.1 points in six games. He's shooting 46 percent (22 of 47) from 3-point range, which is 3.6 treys a night.
"He's shown great leadership," Sikeston coach Gregg Holifield said. "He's a good player. I don't know if people know how good he is. He's a good shooter. I watch that guy do shooting drills every day and he really puts in a lot of time and effort. He's really had a great start to his senior season."
After an offensive putback by sophomore Fred Thatch, who finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, Dyes went on a mini run of his own to catapult Sikeston out of a slow-paced start to the contest.
A free throw from Dyes and a basket by Thatch led to 11-straight points for Dyes, which took just 1:33 of time off the clock. Dyes' second 3-pointer of the first quarter gave Sikeston a 16-2 lead with 2:40 left to play. The Bulldogs led 21-6 after the frame.
"All my teammates are behind me," said Dyes. "Every decision I make, they help me get the ball and it's a team effort. I just come in and try to do the same thing every day and just give 110 percent every game."
Thatch led Sikeston with eight points in the second quarter as the Bulldogs outscored Greene Co. 15-10 to take a 36-16 lead into halftime.
Sikeston, who came into Tuesday night's game shooting 48 percent from the floor as a team and averaging 81 points a game, was a touch under that clip in the first half. They shot 44 percent (13 of 29) from the field and was 5 of 13 from behind the arc.
"They do a good job of getting hands in the passing lane, getting tipped passes and leading to a fast break," said Greene County Tech coach Brian Martin, who is in his first year with the Golden Eagles. "They really want to score off their defensive touches. Really from a half-court offense standpoint, I think they can really shoot the ball. That's really a strength."
Sikeston extended its lead to 29 points by the end of the third quarter using an 11-0 run to end the frame. Deterio Newman picked up a steal, stopped at the 3-point line and drained a shot with five seconds remaining to give Sikeston a 61-32 advantage going into the fourth quarter.
Greene County Tech committed 21 turnovers -- 12 in the first half -- against a Sikeston team averaging 24 forced turnovers on the year.
"We had some silly turnovers and it kind of snowballed," Martin said. "On top of that, they shot the ball well and we never got in a good rhythm. By and large, they did a good job of disrupting what we wanted to do."
About the only thing that didn't go Sikeston's way was its free throw shooting. The Bulldogs, who came into the game shooting 70 percent from the line as a team, finished 12 of 27 (44 percent). They were 5 of 15 in the first half.
"I feel like we're a good free throw shooting team but we didn't shoot them well tonight," Holifield said. "I don't know if it was a lack of focus or what it was. Our guys work at it and do a good job, but tonight they didn't fall. I'm not concerned about that. I think we'll be fine in that area."
Greene County Tech (3-7) was paced by junior Logan Sapp. The 6-2 postman scored 15 points, pulled down eight rebounds and finished the first half with 10 points.
"He's an aggressive player, especially around the basket," Martin said. "He's got a lot of want-to about him. When he gets touches down around the paint, usually good things happen."
Sikeston will look to continue its unbeaten streak when they travel to Notre Dame on Friday. Sikeston already own one victory over Notre Dame after beating their rival from the north 69-52 during the first round of last week's SEMO Conference Tournament.
The junior varsity game is scheduled for 6 p.m.
"I've got a since of urgency," Dyes said. "I know this is my senior year so I'm just after that state championship. That's what's keeping me pushing every day."
Greene Co. 6 10 16 4 -- 36
Sikeston 21 15 25 10 -- 71
GREENE COUNTY TECH (36) -- Beau Gramling 2, Kayne Wilson 2, Cody Dortch 3, Tyson Bayird 2, Logan Sapp 15, Caleb Lucious 2, Clayton Beasley 10. FG 17 FT 1-1 F 20. (3-pointers: Dortch 1. Fouled out: none.)
SIKESTON (71) -- Don Larry 6, Dominique Dyes 25, Deterio Newman 3, Kevin Jones 10, Sam Cox 2, Fred Thatch 16, Chris Appleton 1, Juwon Kimble 3, Earnest Fobbs 2, Dylon Mills 3. FG 24 FT 12-27 F 8. (3-pointers: Larry 1, Dyes 5, Newman 1, Jones 2, Thatch 1, Mills 1. Fouled out: none.)
JV -- Sikeston won 74-36
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