SCAA: Rebels get past Bearcats (again)

BLOOMFIELD – The noteworthy achievements by the Richland (Essex) boy’s basketball squad in the 2023-24 season continued to pile up on Monday.

The Rebels (13-4), who are one victory shy of matching last season’s 14-win mark, and still have at least 10 games remaining on their schedule, beat Dexter 48-45 in the opening round of the Stoddard County Athletic Association Tournament at Bloomfield High School.

The win for Richland (Essex) was the second in three games this season against the Bearcats, after not topping Dexter since 1997 entering this season.

“It means a lot to the kids,” Richland (Essex) coach Matt Cline said after the first Rebel win, which came in last month’s Bloomfield Christmas Tournament. “They consider themselves, sort of rivals, but it has been a rivalry kind of like a hammer and a nail.”

On Monday, the Rebels shut down the Bearcats (3-12) in the third quarter, as they stretched their advantage from 18-17 at halftime to 35-28 early in the final period.

“It’s a big deal for us,” Cline said on Monday. “(Dexter Coach Chad Allen) has done a great job. They are a little undermanned. He’s playing a bunch of underclassmen, and they are going to get back to being strong.”

The same could be said for the Rebels, who have won games this season in both the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament and now the SCAA Tournament for the first time in a couple of years.

The Rebels played just one senior (Jaden Pope) on Monday, so this group should be even more difficult to deal with next season.

The Bearcats were stifling defensively early, as they held Richland (Essex) to just eight first-quarter points and 18 by halftime. However, the Rebels got offense from four different players in the third period to give themselves some breathing room.

“I thought early on, we did a great job,” Allen said. “We ended up going man (defense), and that is not our forte.”

Richland (Essex) got a bit of a comfortable margin and were “just going to hold it,” according to Allen, so his team had to come out and pressure the Rebels. That strategy did get Dexter back into the game, as it trimmed its deficit in the final minutes to four on a couple of occasions. However, it also allowed the Rebels to drive to the rim, or in one case, drive-and-dump to junior forward Tucker Hughes, who threw down an impressive two-handed dunk off of a single drop step.

“He is long,” Cline said of Hughes. “He’s good and he handles the ball. He has gotten a lot of (basketball) sense to him. A lot of his turnovers are because he sees things that the rest of us don’t see.”

Hughes paced the Rebels, who have now won five straight and seven of eight games, with 13 points. He was helped by Pope and junior guard Hunter Sanders, who each scored 10 points while junior forward Eric Williams chipped in 11 points.

The Rebels held an 11-5 free throw advantage, which proved to be the difference in the game. However, Richland (Essex) missed half of its 22 free throw attempts.

Dexter had just four players score and was led by senior center Ethan Zebelin, who totaled 25 points. Junior guard Tucker Temples was back in action after suffering a concussion earlier this month and had nine points, as did sophomore Gibson Booker.

The Rebels advance to face the winner of Woodland and Bell City on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Dexter will play the loser of the Cardinal-Cub match-up on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. in the consolation semifinal.