Dexter ready to get defensive in pursuit of C4D1 title

The goal for every basketball team – at every level – is to be playing its best basketball as it enters the postseason. In the case of the Dexter High School boy’s squad, that has not happened, and its defensive work, or lack thereof, is why that is the case.

“Not as well as we would have liked to,” Bearcat senior Chris Stone replied bluntly when asked how his team is performing at the defensive end right now. “We would like to keep teams in the 40s or low 50s, and recently, we have not done that.”

The Bearcats (18-8) will open their postseason tonight against Fredericktown (12-15) at 5:30 p.m. at the Bearcat Event Center in Dexter in the semifinal round of the MSHSAA Class 4 District 1 Tournament.

After winning six of its eight games in the month of January, Dexter has stumbled in February, as it has gone .500 (3-3). In five of those six games, the Bearcats are allowing at least 55 points and gave up at least 60 in three of those games.

“We need to pick up the intensity,” Stone continued, “and talk more on defense and know where shooters are.”

Fourth-year Bearcat coach Chad Allen has coached, as well as his six classmates, through all four years of their high school careers, and his expectation for the 6-foot-2 forward is to lift his team’s “intensity.”

“Chris is our energy guy,” Allen said.

The Bearcats will get offense from all-time leading scorer Cole Nichols, as well as shooters in Brayden Pullum and Truman Krapf, but what Stone (among others) brings is grit and hustle.

“I’m not necessarily the most talented,” Stone said, “but I have always tried to do what I can to control and play hard.”

Throughout the season, Dexter has made great strides defensively.

The Bearcats are limiting opponents this year to just over 47 points per game, which is five points better than a year ago.

If Allen’s team is able to win the C4D1 Tournament, something the program hasn’t done in a long, long, long time, it will match the 20 wins of the 2017-18 team, and trail only the 21-win squad from the 2020-21 season, which is the most wins by a Bearcat squad in recent memory.

“We’ve got a bunch of seniors,” Allen said, “they definitely want to do as well as they can here in Districts. That is their goal is to win a District championship.

“We have to go out and execute, but the main thing is we have to set the tone defensively.”

Like Dexter, the Blackcats enter tonight’s game having split its last six games.

“I thought that we have played well in the regular season,” Allen said, “but we’ve got to carry that over here in the postseason. The main thing is defensively, that is where we are going to have to do well.”