Lady Bearcats cruise past Naylor;Nichols joins 1,000 point club

The Dexter Lady Bearcats reached the 10 win mark Thursday evening after defeating Naylor 93-35 at the Bearcat Event Center.

Before the game Kate Nichols was honored for joining the 1,000 point club. She did so last Thursday as the Lady Bearcats took on the Woodland Lady Cardinals at Woodland. Nichols is the 11th Lady Bearcat to join the 1,000 point club.

“I am proud of her (Nichols) she will be the first one in here shooting before a game and she comes in on her own time and works hard at it,” said Dexter coach Eric Sitze of Nichols. “She is a hard nosed player, she knows how to get the ball, she knows how to score the basketball. She is just a real good competitive, I am proud of her, I am happy for her.”

Once the game started the Lady Bearcats got down to business. Nichols got Dexter on the scoreboard from the free throw line hitting one of two shots. This was the first of her game high 34 points.

Allison Turnbo scored in the paint and Nichols added another bucket off a steal to up the lead to 5-0. Jalynn Winder got the Lady Eagles on the board to cut the lead to 5-2.

Dexter then went on a 10-0 run with buckets from Turnbo, Nichols and Klaire Essner. The Lady Bearcats built a 28-7 lead by the end of the first quarter and a 48-13 lead by halftime. Dexter cruised to a 93-35 win. Dexter has now won three of its last four games.

“The girls are doing well, executed well tonight offensively. We relaxed a little there in the second half but we executed well tonight,” said Sitze. “We are looking forward to the final stretch (of the season), we have a lot of good competition coming up. It is the end of the season, I think we have things where we want them, just need to finish strong.”

The Lady Bearcats are preparing to embark on a tough stretch of games in the next few weeks. Opponents will include Saxony Lutheran, Cape Central, Jackson and possible district opponents Notre Dame and Doniphan. Sitze spoke about what his team will need to do to be successful.

“We have to get better defensively still, we have got to do some things better defensively,” said Sitze. “We have got to cut the turnovers down and we have just got to keep getting in the gym and getting up some extra shots. Turnovers are big, if we can limit our turnovers and we can guard better and knock down some shots we will be successful here at the end.”

Dexter (10-8) will next be in action Monday evening when they host Saxony Lutheran on Monday. Naylor (2-15) will visit Scott County Central on Tuesday.

For Dexter Nichols had 34 points, Turnbo 16, Abbie Lloyd and Mauriona Menley each had 10, Karis Kennedy 9, Averee Ackman and Klaire Essner each had 6 and Febe Worley had 2. Naylor was led by Jalynn Winder and Trinity Futrall who each had 10 points, Chloe Mitchell and Olivia Mullins each had 5, Ella Cannon 4 and Lexi Holcomb had 1.