Dexter basketball rises early to 'refocus' for SEMO battle with Kennett

For the Dexter High School varsity boy’s basketball squad, the lesson learned this week is that sleeping is optional, and effort on the court is definitely not.

Following the Bearcats’ less-than-impressive 55-26 thrashing on Monday at the hands of Sikeston, fourth-year Dexter coach Chad Allen brought his team back to the Bearcat Event Center the following morning at 6:30 a.m. for practice.

“We got a good go-through,” Allen said of the early morning session. “We got them refocused and now we have a tough game with Kennett.”

The loss at the Sikeston Field House snapped a three-game win streak for Dexter (16-6), who bounced back and won handily on Tuesday at over-matched Bell City 83-27.

The Indians (8-13) will visit the Bearcat Event Center tonight at 7:30 p.m. and they are struggling – to a degree.

Kennett has dropped three of its past four games, but Allen said the depth of the Indians is of concern to him, mostly because his team’s depth is challenged at this point.

“Kennett is deep,” Allen said, “and they like to get after you defensively and they try to create turnovers.

“They will definitely come out and try to get after us.”

Under first-year coach Noll Billings, the Indians have far surpassed last year’s five-win season and have improved offensively markedly from last year, raising their scoring average over seven points per game to a touch more than 62 points scored each night. However, Billings wasn’t thrilled with his team following a loss on Wednesday at Poplar Bluff.

“We didn’t start out strong as we should have,” Billings told Semoball.com, “and when you play in a conference like this and show up with no energy or sense of urgency, you’re going to lose. Heading into the next game, we need to fix that.”

Allen said Kennett’s offensive momentum starts at the defensive end.

“We’ve got to take care of the ball,” Allen said, “and be aggressive (offensively).”

Which was something his team lacked severely against Sikeston’s zone.

The Bearcats average over 63 points per game this season, and the 26 against Sikeston was the fewest the program had scored since losing to Poplar Bluff by an identical 55-26 score on Feb. 13, 2018.

“We just weren’t aggressive,” Allen said following the loss. “It was plain and simple. When you’re not aggressive offensively, the defense is going to get a lot of turnovers, which (Sikeston) did.”

The Bearcats have matched last year’s 16-win season, so a victory tonight will give the program its best record since the 21-7 season in 2020-21. With at least five games remaining this season, the Bearcats have a puncher’s chance of topping that mark – if Allen’s players can get healthy.

Against the Cubs, senior shooter Brayden Pullum (shoulder) and junior center Ethan Zabelin (ankle) both sat out injured, while Zabelin did against Sikeston, as well.

Bearcat senior guard Cole Nichols is a mere 22 points away from breaking former Dexter great Brett Hale’s all-time scoring record, but Nichols has sat out practice on Wednesday and Thursday with an infected callus on his foot.

Allen spoke of Zabelin and Pullum on Tuesday and said they were “sort of day to day, really.”

“We’ll get them checked out again,” Allen continued, “and hopefully, we’ll get them back here soon.”