SCAA Tournament: Bearcats get rematch with Mules after rout of Cardinals

DEXTER – It has only been two weeks since the Dexter High School boy’s basketball squad got past Bernie 48-28 in Bernie, yet the two teams will meet again tonight in the championship game of the Stoddard County Athletic Association Tournament at the Bearcat Event Center in Dexter.

“We have nothing to lose,” Bernie coach Jason Long said after his team beat Advance 81-75 in a semifinal on Thursday in the tournament. “Dexter is the one-seed and we’re the three-seed.”

The Bearcats advanced to the championship game after beating No. 5-seed Woodland 89-47. It will mark a return to the title game for Dexter following a one-year hiatus, which snapped a three-year streak of winning the tournament.

Having had success already against the Mules (14-5), Dexter coach Chad Allen said on Thursday that he isn’t going to overthink his strategy for the rematch.

“We definitely want to come back out and try and do the same thing,” Allen said.

On Thursday, the Bearcats (14-5) sank 18 3-pointers against the Cardinals (14-6), including eight from senior Brayden Pullum.

“He’s been shooting it really well,” Allen said of Pullum. “He’s got a lot of confidence.”

Pullum finished with a game-high 32 points against Woodland, and astoundingly, his offensive production wasn’t as good as his recent game against Puxico in which he buried nine 3-pointers and totaled 37 points.

“We were really effective tonight because we were moving the ball really well,” Allen continued, “and shooting it well.

“When you are shooting it well, it really expands (Woodland’s) defense out, and you can start getting more stuff inside.”

As the Cardinal defenders chased after Dexter shooters, it opened driving lanes for Bearcat senior guard Cole Nichols to get to the basket. He finished with 29 points.

“Coming into this game,” Woodland coach Shawn Kinder said, “it felt like we were playing on our heels. I felt like we came in here and were intimidated.”

The Bearcats led 33-14 after one period and 59-23 at halftime and cruised thereafter.

Woodland got 15 points from Lane VanGennip, while Reed Layton and Jarid Frymire each chipped in 10 points.

The Cardinals will face Advance (17-3) in the third-place game tonight at 5:30 p.m.

For Dexter, it did a great job of containing Bernie super-scorer Tristan Johnson a couple of weeks ago, and they’ll implement a similar strategy tonight in the title game at 8:30 p.m.

The tournament rotates between the Bearcat Event Center and Bloomfield, and Allen said having this year’s event at home could play a role tonight.

“It definitely helps,” Allen said, “because you are shooting on the same rims that you practice on every day. Plus, you usually get more (fans) here, as well.”