Five days, 10 games and some video

Bernie was impressive in its two victories to close out the Class 2 District 3 championship at Chaffee. The Mules crushed Saxony Lutheran 80-48 with a 19-0 run to start the second period Tuesday, and they rallied past Advance 72-65 in the championship game Thursday.

As a team performance, Borgia's eight 3-pointers in the first half Saturday over Sikeston's 2-3 zone was impressive, but Quinton Stevens caught fire in the third period against Advance with some shots over hand-in-the-face defense.

Stevens rallied his team from a 55-48 deficit into a 62-61 lead.

Bernie has some shooters, a good penetrating guard in Jake Welch and outworked Advance on the boards in the first half especially.

It could be interesting if the berth to Columbia comes down to a rematch of the Bloomfield Christmas tourney title between Bernie and Portageville.

On the girls side of that bracket, Meadow Heights 5-foot-8 freshman Whitney Welker gave notice she could be a force for years to come at this level. She had 30 points and 23 rebounds as the Panthers squashed Oran in the final.

She had 16 points in the semifinal against Chaffee.

Now the Panthers (20-6) will try to parlay the first district crown in the program's four-year history into a final four berth.

The next night, in Class 3, another freshman post player stood tall, as Scott City's 6-3 Katie Hogan had 19 points to lead the fifth-seeded Rams past Charleston 52-47 in the girls title game. Stephanie Essner added 15 as the 12-13 Rams finished off their unlikely run which opened with a one-point win against No. 4 East Prairie and included an upset of No. 1 Kelly.

(Kelly's Debra Hall, playing injured, still hit for 23 and would be a candidate for the Semoball 5 as one of the top girls players in the region.)

The boys game wasn't always pretty -- it was New Madrid scrapping with Charleston after all -- but Bluejays senior Chase McClendon made the play of the week with a last-second layup off a feed from Jeremy Spencer in a 59-57 championship victory.

The Bluejays face Bloomfield on Wednesday.

The Class 4 girls games also were thrillers, as Dexter first had to hold off Farmington 60-57 in Wednesday's sectional and then rallied past Sullivan 46-39 with a huge third-quarter run. The Bearcats won both games with senior leading scorer Katelyn Heil spending much of the night in foul trouble, usually accompanied by a teammate (Cathryn Heil vs. Farmington; Ashlee Taylor vs. Sullivan).

But the Bearcats, 28-0 and ranked No. 1 all season in Class 4, showed why with any number of scoring threats who can come through in the clutch and a stingy defense.

They will play Webb City on Thursday evening in the Class 4 final four.

The Sikeston boys came up just a couple minutes short on Saturday against Borgia after thumping Farmington in the sectional round.

Borgia rolled out to a 26-16 halftime lead by raining 3-pointers, but Sikeston rallied for a 33-33 tie after three quarters behind Eli Jackson. Every possession counted in the fourth, and Borgia pulled away from a 39-39 tie with 2 1/2 minutes to go to claim a 51-41 victory.

The Knights clamped down on Michael Porter (13 points), hit the 3s early and hit the free throws late (9 of 10 after Nathan Scheer's go-ahead-for-good basket with 2:20 to play).

More on tap tonight with the Class 1 sectionals. Classes 2 and 3 hit the court on Wednesday.

You can check out plenty of video from last week at the Semoballsports channel on Youtube. Clips include Chase McClendon's winning basket for Charleston, the Dexter girls' rally against Farmington, and Sikeston's games with Farmington and Borgia.