Sikeston wins battle of state-ranked teams, will face Cape Central for district championship

BONNE TERRE, Mo. – The Sikeston Bulldogs have known all season long that the Class 5, District 1 Tournament runs through the Cape Central Tigers.

To many, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that the Tigers would win the district and make a push for a state title, but the Bulldogs will get one final shot at Cape Central on Monday in the district championship game.

Second-seeded Sikeston (21-7), punched its ticket to the district final with a 77-57 victory over third-seeded Hillsboro (21-7) on Friday night at North County High School.

Top-seeded Cape Central (26-2), ranked No. 1 in the state, posted another dominating victory, defeating fifth-seeded Windsor, 84-51.

The championship final will tip-off on Monday at 6 p.m.

To get there, the Bulldogs had to knock off a talented Hillsboro team that is ranked ninth in the state.

Sikeston, which is ranked eighth in the state, did it with its trademark pressure defense and up-tempo offense.

“That’s who we are and that’s how we play,” Sikeston coach Gregg Holifield said. “We always want to put as much pressure on the ball as we can and we want to get up and down the floor. Tonight I think we were able to do that.”

Hillsboro’s Noah Holland, a high scoring guard who pumped in 51 points earlier this season against Festus, got off to a hot start with 12 first quarter points as the Hawks took the early lead against the Bulldogs at 13-6.

“He’s a really good player,” Holifield said of Holland. We had to make some adjustments and our guys did a great job after that onslaught and covered him so much better.”

Sikeston responded after an early timeout by Holifield and closed the first quarter on a run to take a 19-16 lead.

Holland scored back-to-back baskets to start the second quarter as the Hawks took a 20-19 lead, but a Creighton Sarakas 3-pointer put the Bulldogs back ahead.

The two teams worked to a tie midway through the second quarter until Dontrez Williams scored on an old-fashioned 3-point play to give the Bulldogs a 27-24 lead.

Sikeston never lost the lead the rest of the night.

Later in the quarter, Tristan Wiggins drained a 3-pointer and then scored a layup to extend Sikeston’s lead to 36-28.

Two Kobe Thomas free throws gave Sikeston a 38-28 halftime lead.

“I thought we really played well the last three minutes of the second quarter and I thought we had huge momentum going into halftime,” Holifield said.

Hillsboro managed to trim Sikeston’s lead 38-31 to start the third quarter, but Thomas and Williams hit back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the lead to 44-31.

The lead swelled to 48-33 after a Sarakas layup in transition, but the Hawks quickly fought back with a 9-0 run, trimming the Bulldogs’ lead to 48-42.

A huge 3-pointer by senior guard Harrison Arndt stopped the run. Williams scored on an offensive putback and then scored inside on an inbounds play to give the Bulldogs a 55-42 lead at the end of the third quarter.

“Hillsboro got into a comfort zone offensively and we took a few bad shots during that stretch,” Holifield said. “Harrison’s 3-pointer was a huge basket for us and helped us finish the quarter strong.”

Sikeston continued to attack in the fourth quarter and was able to put the game away.

“I thought we had a great mindset in the fourth quarter,” Holifield said. “We came out and forced some turnovers and got some baskets off of it and we were able to build onto our lead.”

Williams faced an aggressive, physical defense from the Hawks, but was still able to score 23 points with seven rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Wiggins followed up with 16 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Sophomore guard Lekereon McCray battled foul trouble throughout the game, but still managed 12 points with four rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Sarakas chipped in with 10 points for the Bulldogs while the freshman Thomas came off the bench and provided a spark with seven points, three rebounds and three steals.

Hillsboro’s Holland scored a game-high 26 points.

The Bulldogs hit 8 of 20 (40 percent) from 3-point range.

Sikeston forced the Hawks into 16 turnovers while committing just 11 themselves.

Now Sikeston will attempt to do something that no team has done in southeast Missouri – defeat Cape Central.

Holifield knows how big of an underdog his team is against the Tigers, who defeated Sikeston 84-71 in November and then 82-57 in February, but he is hoping that his team will be ready for the challenge.

“We know how good they are,” Holifield said. “They’re as talented as any team in the state of Missouri. But we will play as hard as we can and as tough as we can. We’re looking forward to the matchup.”

Hillsboro 16 12 14 15 -- 57

Sikeston 19 19 17 22 -- 77

HILLSBORO (57) – Noah Holland 26, Kieren Jones 12, Payton Brown 6, Dominic Sutton 6, Luka Pool 5, Stephen Reynolds 2. FG 23, FT 6-8, F 15. (3-pointers: Holland 3, Sutton 2. Fouled out: none).

SIKESTON (77) – Dontrez Williams 23, Tristan Wiggins 16, Lekereon McCray 12, Creighton Sarakas 10, Kobe Thomas 7, Harrison Arndt 5, Chris Artis 2, Quemariae Gray 2. FG 29, FT 11-15, F 11. (3-pointers: Wiggins 2, Williams 2, Sarakas 2, Thomas 1, Arndt 1. Fouled out: none).