LRC Final set: Dexter vs. Portageville

From left, Dexter's Cathryn Heil, Naylor's Brooke Baccus and Dexter's Katelyn Heil battle for a loose ball during the semifinals of the Lady Royals Holiday Classic in Broseley on Friday, Jan. 2, 2009. (Rob Tate/Daily American Republic)

BROSELEY -- Any kind of deficit to start a game is never a good thing.

On Friday night in the Lady Royals Classic semifinals, the Dexter Bearcats forced Naylor to commit a bunch of fouls in the first half as they got out to an 11-0 run. Dexter went on and finished off the Lady Eagles, 66-41.

Junior Abbie Warren scored five of Dexter's 11 points during the early run. Naylor chipped away at the lead though as they cut down on the Dexter lead to six points with 1:32 left in the first quarter when Holly Deckard hit her first 3-pointer on the game.

But Dexter just rapid-fire its way through the rest of the quarter and into the second with a 22-2 run to catapult to a 34-8 lead with 2:55 left in the half. Bearcats senior Katelyn Heil had nine points during the run.

Both teams got into foul trouble early, but Dexter reached the double-bonus at the free-throw line with 6:13 left in the second quarter. The Lady Bearcats didn't capitalize as much as they could by going 12-for-22 from the line in the first half.

Naylor's Courtney Sullivan and Cheyenne Hollowell each had four fouls in the first half while Cheyenne Ragsdale had three. In the end, only Ragsdale fouled out.

"Both halves we ended up going to the free-throw line before they did," Dexter coach Chad Allen said. "We definitely didn't execute when we got to the free-throw line though."

Allen did agree though that the game was pretty physical from the start.

"I believe this is definitely the most physical team we've played all year," Allen said. "You gotta give credit to coach (Gene) Deckard he had them playing hard, the 1-3-1 (zone) was pretty effective We didn't get very much inside so I thought they did a great job defensively."

Naylor coach Gene Deckard didn't really like what he saw out of his team in the first half, but his team --albeit too late -- responded with a better shooting effort in the third quarter.

The loss was Naylor's first of the season as all four teams in the year's semifinals came in undefeated.

"It was real disappointing how we come out," Naylor coach Deckard said. "The girls said that they were so nervous. We passed up some shots that in the third quarter we was capable of hitting."

The Lady Eagles got two 3-pointers from Holly Deckard to start the third quarter. Overall, Holly had three 3s in the quarter and four on the game for a total of 16 points. Ragsdale added six points in the quarter to help outscore Dexter, 17-15.

"I feel like , we came out tick for tack in the second half," Coach Deckard said. "I feel if we would've come out ready to play in the first half, we felt like it would've been about a 10 point ballgame."

Dexter got a strong effort out of Katelyn Heil offensively. The senior scored a game-high 23 points. Ashlee Taylor added 14 points and Warren contributed 10.

Allen was happy to see his bench got involved in the game.

"The bench got quite a bit of minutes," Allen said. "I thought they did a great job when they came. I know Lauren Ward came in and hit (one) 3 and Kayla Joyner came in and played great defense. Kaitlyn Phillips came in there and she gets a lot of blocked shots and was pretty active early."

The two teams met last year in the Lady Royal Classic final with Dexter prevailing.

Dexter will face Portageville in the championship game on Saturday night.

Portageville 52, Kelly 37

After trailing after the first quarter, the Lady Bulldogs played solidly in the second quarter and stayed steady the rest of the game to land in the championship game against Dexter.

The Lady Bulldogs' big quarter was the second as they outscored the Lady Hawks, 17-8. Ronesha Ray led the Bulldogs with all six of her points in the quarter.

Brittney Walker scored a team-high 20 points, 13 of which were in the first half. Junior Katie Kellams added 13 points.

For Kelly, senior Debra Hall scored a game-high 23 of the Lady Hawks' 37 points with 14 of those coming in the first half.

Kelly will face Naylor in the third place game Saturday night.

Kennett 41, Clearwater 35, OT

Clearwater held a second half lead of ten points but the Lady Indians stormed back to take the win in overtime. The Lady Tigers led 19-7 at halftime.

The Lady Indians' Hope Sparks connected on two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and Jerica Wheeler added seven points in the frame to help send it to overtime.

Kennett got balanced scoring in the overtime with four players contributing to 10 points led by Wheeler with four points.

Clearwater was led by two players in double figures scoring Lindsay Bell had a team-high 13 points with three 3-pointers while Emily Miller adding 12 points.

Charleston 58, Greenville 55

After getting out to a 16-9 start in the first quarter, the Lady Bears just couldn't hang on to the lead as Charleston came out strong in the second half to take the win.

The Lady Bluejays advance to the fifth place title game against Kennett.

Greenville got 32 points from junior post player Tara Porter. Porter went 15-for-25 from the free throw line on the game.

Kaylin Becker added 15 points for Greenville.

Charleston got a solid effort for, Jerquawnda Sherrell who poured in a team-high 22 points. Cedric Rodgers added 11 points including three 3-pointers for the Lady Bluejays.

Neelyville 65, Doniphan 45

The Lady Tigers continued bouncing back from their first round loss to Clearwater with a solid win over the Donettes.

Neelyville lead 17-16 after the first quarter and then surged in the middle quarters. The Lady Tigers outscored the Donettes 40-11 during that time span.

Lindsey Emerson scored a game-high 20 points on nine field goals for the Lady Tigers. Jessica Uhl added 14 points and Brittany McElhaney added 12 points. The Lady Tigers hit six 3-pointers on the game as a team.

Erin Pennington was the only player in double figures for Doniphan with 15 points.

Twin Rivers 76, New Madrid County Central 46

Torey Davis' big offensive game helped lift the host Lady Royals to the consolation championship against Neelyville.

Davis scored 27 points of the game, 19 in the first half. The senior shot 87 percent (13-for-15) at the free throw line.

Stephanie Jennings and Chelsea Crain each hit double digits in scoring as well with 13 and 12 points respectively for Twin Rivers.

Shameika Williams scored a game-high 30 points for the Eagles. Only four players scored on the game for New Madrid, who were outscored 44-21 in the second half.

NEELYVILLE -- Eakins 1(1) 0-0 3. Uhl 4(3) 3-4 14. Johnson 0 0-0 0. Griffin 2(1) 2-5 7. Emerson 9 2-2 20. McElhaney 5 2-3 12. Morgeson 3(1) 0-1 7. Kovach 0 0-0 0. Hogan 1 0-0 2. Total: 25(6) 9-15 65.

DONIPHAN -- Netherland 1(1) 0-0 3. Aden 2 1-1 5. Hart 1(1) 0-0 5. Mitchner 1 0-0 2. Pennington 7 1-1 15. Carden 1(1) 2-2 5. Civils 3 0-0 6. Holmes 0 0-0 0. Ivy 0 0-0 0. McCafferty 2 0-0 4. Totals: 19(3) 4-4 45.

TWIN RIVERS -- Crain 4 4-6 12. Jennings 6(1) 0-0 13. Cole 0 2-2 2. Reed 3(1) 0-0 7. Snider 3(2) 0-0 8. Douglas 1 1-2 3. Davis 7 13-15 27. Dillinger 1 2-2 4. Hyatt 0 0-0 0. Totals 25(4) 22-27 76.

NEW MADRID -- Johnson 1 0-2 2. Newson 0 0-0 0. JCollins 0 0-0 0. Williams 11 8-14 30. Ruedich 0 0-0 0. Daniels 2 0-2 4. Winfield 0 0-0 0. Flennoy 5 0-3 10. Totals: 19 8-23 46.

CLEARWATER -- Davidson 0 0-0 0. Woods 0 0-0 0. Payton 0 1-2 1. Bell 3(3) 4-6 13. Hill 1 4-9 6. EMiller 3 6-13 12. Smith 1 1-1 3. KMiller 0 0-0 0.

KENNETT -- Brown 0 0-2 0. White 0 0-0 0. Wheeler 5 3-8 13. Sparks 3(2) 0-0 8. Samuel 1 0-0 2. Luce 1 2-2 4. Walls 3 4-6 10. Williams 1 2-6 4. Totals: 14(2) 11-26 41.

GREENVILLE -- KBecker 3 9-12 15. Montgomery 1 0-0 2. Johnson 2 2-5 6. Stewart 0 0-0 0. Porter 8(1) 15-25 32. Totals: 14(1) 26-42 55.

CHARLESTON -- Carter 2 1-1 5. Sherrell 8(2) 4-11 22. Lane 2 0-0 4. Rodgers 4(3) 0-0 11. Cooper 3 0-3 6. KSimpson 1 2-4 4. TSimpson 1 1-4 3. McCatrey 1 1-2 3. Totals: 22(5) 9-25 58.

NAYLOR -- Sullivan 0 0-0 0. Hughey 0 2-4 2. Hollowell 0 0-0 0. Arnold 0 0-0 0. Ragsdale 3 1-2 7. Deckard 5(4) 2-2 16. Baccus 3 0-0 6. Goodrum 4(1) 0-0 9. Rogers 0 1-2 21. Totals: 15(5) 6-10 41.

DEXTER -- Ward 1(1) 1-3 4. KHeil 6(5) 6-6 23. Temples 3 4-6 10. Joyner 0 0-0 0. Taylor 5(1) 3-6 14. Warren 4 2-5 10. CHeil 2 1-2 5 Phillips 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21(7) 17-29 66.

PORTAGEVILLE -- Kellams 0 0-0 0. Drake 6 1-2 13. TWalker 1 1-4 3. KNowlin 0 0-0 0. Long 0 3-4 3. Ray 3 0-0 6 Walker 9 2-3 20. Chamberlain 2(1) 2-2 7. Totals: 21 9-15 52.

KELLY -- Moore 1 0-2 2. Backfisch 2 2-2 6. Whitwhorth 1 0-0 2. Johnson 0 0-1 0. Fisher 0 0-2 0. Powell 1 0-1 2. Hall 10(1) 2-4 23. Totals: 16(1) 2-4 37.