Sikeston blows past Farmington, 77-40

FARMINGTON, Mo. – It’s been 11 days since the Sikeston Bulldogs last played a game, which came in a road loss to SEMO Conference rival Charleston on Jan. 6.

With so much time in between games, Sikeston coach Gregg Holifield has ramped up his practices in order to get his team ready for a grueling stretch of games coming up in the next few weeks, with almost all of them coming on long road trips.

The first test was passed on Tuesday night as Sikeston rolled past Farmington 77-40 on the road.

“Our guys really practiced hard and a lot of that hard work carried over tonight,” Holifield said. “I was really proud of our effort.”

Two areas that Holifield wanted to see his team improve during his practices were on defense and with rebounding. On Tuesday, Sikeston forced the Knights into 24 turnovers while limiting them to 30 points through three quarters and the team rebounded better in stretches according to Holifield.

“We really focused on defense and rebounding and I thought we did much better in those areas tonight,” Holifield said “Offensively I thought we did a much better job of moving the ball and breaking down their defense with ball movement.”

Sikeston (9-4) never trailed in the game, jumping out to a 9-2 lead early. The Knights (7-9) were able to hang tough the rest of the period, eventually trimming Sikeston’s lead to 19-16 by the end of the quarter.

The Bulldogs opened the game up in the second quarter, forcing nine turnovers, most of which led to fast-break points.

Bulldog freshman Kobe Thomas dropped in a short floater on the baseline and junior Dontez Williams followed with a 3-pointer off a steal and assist from Morgan McCauley to extend the Sikeston lead to 34-21 with 4:07 left in the half.

Senior Creighton Sarakas drew two crucial charges during the pivotal stretch that helped keep the momentum on the Bulldogs’ side.

By the half, Sikeston had out-scored Farmington 24-8 in the second quarter to lead 43-24.

“We picked the pressure up offensively and defensively,” Holifield said. “I thought we did a great job of creating turnovers and we were attacking offensively.”

Williams scored 20 of his game-high 22 points in the first half. He also had six rebounds, a season-high seven assists and five steals.

The Bulldogs came out in the second half and continued the onslaught, blitzing the Knights with a 14-0 run, mostly spearheaded by Sikeston’s man-to-man pressure defense.

Sikeston out-scored the Knights 27-6 in the third quarter to hold a 70-30 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Sikeston out-scored Farmington 51-14 in the second and third quarters combined.

After Williams’ 22 points, the Bulldogs spread around the production with sophomore Tristan Wiggins scoring 13 points. Sarakas added 11 while Lekereon McCray and Thomas each followed up with 10 points.

Trace Sadler, Sikeston’s 6-foot-10 inch sophomore, finished with seven points and four rebounds, all in the second half.

Farmington had no player reach double figures.

Since 2004, he Bulldogs’ dominance over the Knights has reached epic heights, winning 21 straight, including three playoff sectional victories in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Sikeston will be back on the road on Friday when they travel to play SEMO Conference rival Kennett. Junior varsity is slated to tip off at 6 p.m.

Junior varsity

The Sikeston J.V. team improved to 7-0 on the season with a 75-37 win over Farmington.

Sikeston shot a sizzling 13 of 24 (54 percent) from 3-point range in the game led by Ben James’ five 3-pointers.

James led the team with 21 points, six assists and five steals. Thomas added 13 points with five assists. Will Lape added 12 points, all on four 3-pointers. Jaharus Goodwin added nine points.

Isaiah Jimerson-Patterson had five assists and six steals.

SIKESTON 77, FARMINGTON 40

Sikeston 19 24 27 7 -- 77

Farmington 16 8 6 10 -- 40

__SIKESTON (77) –__ Dontrez Williams 22, Lekereon McCray 10, Tristan Wiggins 13, Kobe Thomas 10, Creighton Sarakas 11, Trace Sadler 7, Chris Artis 2, Morgan McCauley 2. FG 31, FT 10-16, F 11. (3-pointers: Williams 2, Sarakas 3. Fouled out: none).

__FARMINGTON (40) –__ Cannon Roth 8, Logan Schaupert 7, Maxson Lamonds 6, Cooper Tripp 6, Sam Woodson 4, Layton Tinnin 3, Camrin Roberts 3, Brayden Armes 2, Cory Crawford 1. FG 15, FT 5-8, F 15. (3-pointers: Lamonds 2, Schaupert 1, Roberts 1, Tinnin 1. Fouled out: none).

SIKESTON 75, FARMINGTON 37 (JV)

Sikeston 21 18 19 17 -- 75

Farmington 12 7 9 9 -- 37

__SIKESTON (75) –__ Ben James 21, Kobe Thomas 13, Will Lape 12, Jaharus Goodwin 9, Jamison Sifford 6, Drake Williams 5, Isaiah Jimerson-Patterson 5, Jakwon Applewhite 2, Malachi Davis 2. FG 28, FT 6-8, F 12. (3-pointers: James 5, Lape 4, Sifford 2, Williams 1, Thomas 1. Fouled out: none).

__FARMINGTON (37) –__ Scott 9, Knight 8, Street 8, Crawford 5, Beard 5, Embry 2. FG 14, FT 4-6, F 9. (3-pointers: Scott 3, Beard 1, Street 1. Fouled out: none).