Sikeston reaches St. Dominic final with dominating 93-61 victory

O’FALLON, Mo. – For the first time since 2019, the Sikeston Bulldogs are back in the finals of the St. Dominic Christmas Tournament.

The top-seeded Bulldogs made quick work of fourth-seeded Lutheran-St. Charles in a 93-61 semifinal victory on Thursday night at St. Dominic High School.

The Bulldogs will play the defending champion and tournament host St. Dominic on Friday at 5:30 p.m. Second-seeded St. Dominic held on to defeat sixth-seeded Wentzville Holt 70-66 in the other semifinal game.

St. Dominic (8-2) has won its own tournament three out of the last four seasons, including defeating Sikeston in the 2019 championship game. Sikeston has not won the tournament since 2018.

“They are a really good team,” Sikeston coach Gregg Holifield said of St. Dominic. “This will be a great test for us, especially on their home court. It’s going to be an incredible atmosphere and a hostile environment – this will be a great experience for our kids. We’re really going to have to play well to beat them.”

In Thursday’s game, Sikeston attacked the Cougars from the opening tip with a Dontrez Williams 3-pointer and the rout was on soon after.

It was the first points for a big night for Williams, who scored a season-high 28 points, going 10-of-13 from the field, including 3-3 from 3-point range.

“He was a factor offensively and defensively,” Holifield said of Williams. “I thought he played really well. Offensively he really strained their defense and on our defensive side he really put great pressure on the ball and was a major factor defensively.”

The Bulldogs (10-0) jumped out to a 13-2 lead after a Tristan Wiggins 3-pointer. Moment later, Sikeston opened up a 27-7 lead on a Williams 3-pointer with 3:40 left in the opening period.

Things did not slow down as Sikeston continued to force turnovers and when the smoke cleared, the Bulldogs had pumped in a whopping 42 points in the first eight minutes of action.

Sikeston forced the Cougars into nine turnovers in the opening quarter.

“Just tremendous pressure on the basketball from Tristan and Dontrez and we just created points off of it,” Holifield said. “This team has really good guards and our guys have worked really hard and tonight we really had things working for us.”

The Bulldogs’ defense continued to cause fits for the Cougars in the second quarter, limiting them to six points. Sikeston led 60-24 at halftime.

Sikeston forced 16 turnovers in the first half.

Reserves played for most of the second half as the Cougars kept things respectable with 37 points in the third and fourth quarter.

The Bulldogs continued their torrid shooting, going 10 of 18 (56 percent) from 3-point range and the team shot 57 percent overall from the field.

“Our guys put in a lot of time and work hard at it,” Holifield said. “We have good shooters. Our guys really know how to make the extra pass and our percentage goes way up when we do that.”

After Williams’ big night, the Bulldogs had a balanced scoring attack. Thirteen different players reached the scoring column.

Junior P.J. Farmer scored 11 points with 10 assists and five rebounds. Wiggins chipped in with 10 points, four assists and three steals while sophomore Kobe Thomas had 10 points.

Seven-foot junior Trace Sadler controlled the paint with eight points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots. Junior guard Lekereon McCray had nine points with five steals.

Tyler Stepney led the Cougars with 19 points.

__SIKESTON 93, LUTHERAN-ST. CHARLES 61__

Lutheran-St. Charles 18 6 19 18 -- 61

Sikeston 42 18 21 12 -- 93

LUTHERAN-ST. CHARLES (61) – Tyler Stepney 19, Jayden Woods 11, Tatum Bethany 6, Zeke Brown 6, Brandon Doyle 4, Dwayne Walker 4, Charlie Masa 4, Ryan Brettelle 4, Ryan Ritter 3. FG 25, FT 8-14, F 15. (3-pointers: Stepney 1, Brown 1, Ritter 1. Fouled out: none).

SIKESTON (93) – Dontrez Williams 28, P.J. Farmer 11, Tristan Wiggins 10, Kobe Thomas 10, Lekereon McCray 9, Trace Sadler 8, Chris Artis 3, Isaiah Jimmerson-Patterson 3, Will Lape 3, J’kwon Applewhite 2, Dontavious Wright 2, Malachi Davis 2, Marcus Sanders 2. FG 34, FT 15-19, F 17. (3-pointers: Williams 3, Wiggins 2, Thomas 2, Lape 1, Farmer 1, Jimmerson-Patterson 1. Fouled out: none).