Dexter, Turnbo 'rebounds' with impressive road W at Malden

When he graduated six seniors off of his squad last spring, Dexter High School boy’s basketball coach Chad Allen knew that this season would involve a lot of growing pains.

“I told the guys,” Allen said recently, “that we are going to get punched in the mouth. We are going to get tested a lot.”

Those growing pains aren’t limited to just game to game, but possession by possession, and that is precisely what Allen witnessed from his group on Friday.

The Bearcats did an incredible number of positive things throughout the 32 minutes at Malden High School, with a few growing moments mixed into the contest later. However, Dexter did enough to head back up Missouri 25 with an impressive 63-55 win.

“It’s definitely a great win,” Allen said afterward. “We just have to keep going from here.”

Not only did the Bearcats (1-1) rebound from a season-opening loss three days earlier at Charleston, but the Dexter players rebounded – literally – with an abandon against the Green Wave (1-1).

Despite having just one player (6-foot-4 senior center Ethan Zabelin) with much height, the Bearcat players, particularly sophomore forward Devin Turnbo, were relentless on the glass.

“Devin is such a great athlete,” Allen said. “He can jump and he’s strong.”

Turnbo came off the bench in the loss to the Blue Jays, but Allen moved him into the starting lineup against Malden, and even the most positive coach couldn’t have foreseen how Turnbo was going to perform.

In his first varsity start, and only his second varsity game, Turnbo scored a game-high 26 points, including sinking 17 of 23 free throws.

“I was just driving into the paint,” Turnbo explained of his offensive strategy, “getting fouled and hitting my free throws. We just space (the floor) out and drive in and dish out to the open teammate.”

The Bearcats got to the free throw line 12 times in the opening quarter, as they took an early 17-11 lead. That ability to draw fouls continued in the second quarter, as Dexter got to the line 14 more times, including 11 free shots taken by Turnbo.

“We’ve got to stop fouling,” Malden coach Mike Kilgore said, “and (allowing) wide-open lay-ups. For them to shoot (38 free throws), and one guy (Turnbo) shooting (23) by himself, something wasn’t right.”

Conversely, Malden shot just 17 free throws.

The Green Wave trailed 36-30 at the intermission, but couldn’t contain Turnbo following halftime, and still trailed 51-42 early in the final period.

Malden began pressuring Dexter all over the court, and the Bearcats began faltering in some regards, particularly after Zabelin picked up his fourth foul late in the third quarter and had to sit for an extended time.

The Bearcats turned the ball over several times and continually fouled the Malden shooter late in the game.

“And took bad shots at the wrong times,” Allen lamented of his team’s play late.

With Malden trailing 59-50, Turnbo buried a 3-pointer with just over three minutes remaining, which gave his team some positive mojo.

Malden created a turnover and pulled to within 62-53 with just over two minutes remaining, but misfired on a 3-pointer, which Turnbo rebounded at the 1:48 mark, which kept Malden at bay.

“We’re gaining experience,” Allen said. “I thought that we did a tremendous job tonight. Malden is a great team.”

Zabelin added 12 points while Tucker Temples (six points) and John Sepulvado (15) also contributed to the win.

Green Wave senior Payton Woodard scored 13 points to pace his team while senior Marcus Burton added 12 and senior Laterrence Robinson had six.

Malden will travel to Twin Rivers (1-2) on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

Dexter opens the SEMO Conference Tournament at the Sikeston Field House on Monday as the number 9 seed against No. 8-seed Kennett (2-1) at 5:30 p.m.