C4D1 preview: Bearcats, Dons on collision course

By ALAN DALE

Sports Editor

Once again, the Dexter Bearcats will play host to a district tournament — but this time there is a familiar face that is missing from the equation.

When the top-seeded Bearcats host the Class 4 District 1 tournament beginning Monday, Dexter (18-8) will aim to get into the sectional round after falling in the district final game three straight years to New Madrid County Central. However, NMCC is no longer in the same district as Dexter and that could mean new opportunities for the Bearcats and the other five teams, including No. 2 Doniphan (17-9).

The two top seeds were divided by a previous Dexter win in the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament championship game and are the field’s only two teams with winning records.

The rest of the field includes Notre Dame (8-18), Kennett (8-17), Fredericktown (11-15) and Perryville, seeded 3-6 — but neither Dexter head coach Chad Allen nor Doniphan leader Daniel Cagle see fit to look past anyone.

“We got a pretty tough district — it’s got some really good teams and every game is going to be tough,” Allen said. “You got to get prepared this week and be ready to go from the start.

“They are all pretty comparable — there is not one team that really sticks out. It’s going to come down to execution.”

Allen said his Bearcats, whose losses mainly came against the bigger schools in the SEMO Conference, are able to find the right chemistry in most instances.

“This group of guys play so well together be it offensively or defensively — when we are active and getting after it, we’re pretty good,” Allen said.

Dexter owns two wins against Kennett and hasn’t played Fredericktown this year.

“Kennett is really athletic and will get after you defensively,” Allen said. “You have to handle their pressure. It should be a game of whoever we play out of those two.

“It’s nice to be able to host districts and have a good fanbase behind us. Hopefully, that will help us.”

Dexter will hope to ride the top play of Cole Nichols, Truman Krapf, Luke Worley and a number of other solid contributors.

Cagle’s crew have played well over the past month or so but admittedly have been up and down at times. If they are clicking, they will be a tough team to deny a spot in the following week’s sectional round.

“A potential semifinal against Notre Dame could be a really good game,” Cagle said. “Just looking at their schedule and who they’ve played, I know they are only 8-18, but they play a lot tougher schedule than we play. If they played our schedule they would be better than (8-18) and if we had to play their schedule I don’t know if we would be .500. They’ve had a lot of close games.

“It’s going to be a difficult semifinal game. I think there are four teams that can win it. The semifinal games this year are going to be really good. Dexter is No. 1 so they will be one of the favorites, but Kennett and Notre Dame are going to be pretty good.”

Cagle’s big guns have been Max Owen, Emmitt Jones, JD Burton and Kam Barton to name a few.

“We played well in the OFC tournament and then had a bad hiccup against Alton — we just couldn’t put the ball in the hole,” Cagle said. “We shot worse than we had all year. We went to Neelyville and played them really solidly. This week we played Kennett (57-55 win) and against Sikeston (Tuesday) we were just overmatched — they are really talented — and I thought we played pretty well offensively. They are just a lot better than us.”

Doniphan’s last district title, according to Cagle was in 2005-06, and last year they were eliminated by Dexter in the district semifinal.

“It would be big if we won on the boys side,” Cagle said. “I think we can win it if we come out and play aggressively on the defensive end. We have to block out and defend the basketball. Offensively, if we’re knocking down shots we are tough to beat.”

CLASS 4 DISTRICT 1

At Dexter High School

Boys

MONDAY

First round

4) Kennett vs. 5) Fredericktown, 5:30 p.m.

3) Notre Dame vs. 6) Perryville, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY

Semifinals

No. 1 DEXTER vs. Kennett/Fredericktown winner, 5:30 p.m.

No. 2 DONIPHAN vs. Notre Dame/Perryville winner, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY

Championship

Semifinal winners, 6 p.m.