Menu
Dexter's winning streak grows, gets SEMO Conference win over NMCC
NEW MADRID, Mo. -- The SEMO Conference can sometimes be brutal on Dexter, especially early. They lost five of their first six games to that field of nine that's routinely mentioned as one of the toughest grinds in the state.
But the Bearcats are far from that 1-5 start now and were able to continue one of the longest winning streaks in southeast Missouri on Friday night.
Dexter earned some SEMO Conference revenge by taking down New Madrid County Central 77-61 on their homecoming for its 10th win in a row. They also avenged an earlier loss to the Eagles during the SEMO Conference Tournament for their first regular season SEMO Conference victory.
"Our kids are just learning and understanding how to play the game and I'm real proud of them," Dexter coach Josh Dowdy said. "This is a tough environment to have to come down here on homecoming after them knocking us off by double digits and then turn the tables."
Friday night was a polar opposite to the play-in game of the SEMO Conference Tournament.
NMCC neutralized Dexter's offense to just 11 field goals and shut down one of its biggest weapons during a 50-36 win.
Dexter flipped the script on Friday putting nearly every plan they had into motion and succeeding.
Four players scored in double figures led by Clay Mullins' 17 points. Ben Sindle added 16 points, Gabe Jackson had 15 points and 21 rebounds while Jason Jarrell added 14 points.
"We're just playing real hard and these kids are real coachable right now," Dowdy said. "Coming up with plans in practice and they're just doing all they possibly can to go out and execute them. I'm real proud of them."
Dexter's offense ran like a Swiss watch finishing the night 24 for 46 from the floor. They never trailed and were tied once at 4-all.
The Bearcats (11-5, 1-3 SEMO Conference) picked apart NMCC's man defense which led to backdoor cuts off of multiple screens and open layups that helped gain their early edge.
NMCC, who fell to 8-11 overall and 1-4 in the conference after dropping eight of their last nine games, flourished in their first game by picking off Dexter's forced passes inside to Jackson. But on Friday, Dexter was patient when it came to feeding the 6-4 post man and made the Eagles pay for giving him extra attention by knocking down shots from the outside.
"We knew they were going to try and do that again," Dowdy said. "I told the guys once we pitch it back out we need to attack them and should be in a favorable position to do that. I felt like we did that with some big shots too."
Sindle was the one who was left open when Jackson drew the double-team. All of his attempts were from 3-point range where he finished 4 of 9. Dexter shot 38 percent (5 for 13) from three.
"He's such a weapon out there and you have to guard him," Dowdy said. "He spaces out the defense and then we can feed Gabe."
Jarrell and Mullins benefitted too. Jarrell was 5 for 8 from the field and Mullins was 5 for 9.
"Defensively we didn't play like we did against them the last time," NMCC coach Travis Day said. "We played hard, but not as smart. We didn't force them into turnovers and had too many ticky-tack fouls. When we were out of position they made us pay for it."
When NMCC decided to stay one-on-one with Jackson it went Dexter's way too. Jackson finished 7 for 11 from around the basket and was the one distributing to his teammates when scoring opportunities closed around him.
"All it took was for one guys to be out of position and we gave up a three or an easy dump down. That's what good teams do. You make a mistake and you pay for it. They made us pay for all our mistakes."
Javarcus Word led NMCC with 18 points after being held to four in the first half. Down by as many as 17, Word scored nine and Craig Beasley added seven of his 10 in the fourth quarter to cut Dexter's lead to nine with 3:33 to play.
"We had a tough time containing Word," Dowdy said. "He's a senior and we knew he was going to try and take over. He's so hard to stop and stay in front of. Ben Sindle and Alan Pippins did a good job all night and the rest of our team kind of sagged down in the paint to try and keep him in front. He still was able to get to the rim. All in all, we executed what we wanted to do and tried to make it difficult for him."
Dexter quickly pushed its lead back to 12 where it would hover for the remainder of the game with the help of some timely free throw shooting. The Bearcats shot 15 for 24 from the charity stripe to beat back NMCC's final run.
"They just kind of ran at us and forced us to make decisions and make plays," Dowdy said. "We just took what they gave us and seemed like we got to the free throw line because of it."
Dexter led 14-9 after the first quarter and then 27-22 at the half. They opened the third quarter with a 17-5 run to go ahead 44-27 with 3:19 to play and led 48-33 going into the fourth.
NMCC shot 37 percent (24 for 64) from the floor and 3 of 16 (18 percent) from three.
Dexter out-rebounded NMCC 36-27.
Dexter's next game will be their opener in their second conference.
The Bearcats are the No. 2 seed in the SCAA Tournament starting Monday at Bloomfield High School where they will take on No. 7 seed Puxico at 7 p.m. Top-seeded Advance will open with No. 8 Richland at 5:30 p.m.
Dexter hasn't won a SCAA Conference Tournament since 2012.
NMCC will host Malden on Tuesday.
The Dexter junior varsity also pulled out a win, 54-32 over NMCC.
Haden Hillis led Dexter with 15 points.
NMCC was led by Caden Howell's eight points.
| Dexter | 14 | 13 | 21 | 29 | -- | 77 |
| NMCC | 9 | 13 | 11 | 28 | -- | 61 |
DEXTER (77) -- Jason Jarrell 14, Ben Sindle 16, Clay Mullins 17, Ryan Mayo 6, Gabe Jackson 15, Dawson Kasting 5, Alan Pippins 4. FG 24 FT 24-41 F 15. (3-pointers: Sindle 4, Alan Pippins 1. Fouled out: Jarrell.)
NMCC (61) -- Jamonte Sykes 4, Javarcus Word 18 Eddie Grandberry 8, Ronnie King 4, Johnnie Walker 11, Craig Beasley 10, Jaurous Haynes 6. FG 24 FT 10-15 F 26. (3-pointers: Word 1, Beasley 2. Fouled out: Sykes.)