Lady Bearcats rally past Poplar Bluff

With Monday's SEMO Conference girls basketball game on the line, the Dexter Lady Bearcats turned to Kate Nichols.

Nichols scored nine of her game-high 16 points in the fourth quarter as the Lady Bearcats rallied past the Poplar Bluff Lady Mules 43-39 at Mules Gymnasium to spoil Poplar Bluff's senior night.

“Nichols gets things going for them, so with her, we just needed to contain her and not let her drive in the lane,” Poplar Bluff coach Soley Dugas said. “We did a decent job on her, but we fouled some late and she was able to hit her free throws.”

The Lady Mules (14-10, 3-4 SEMO) led 30-28 going to the fourth quarter, but Nichols was 7-for-8 from the free-throw line in the final eight minutes as Dexter outscored the hosts 15-9 to come way with a conference win.

Overall, the Lady Bearcats (11-11, 3-4) were 8-for-11 from the free-throw line in the final period, while Goodman added a 3-pointer.

“I'm proud of my girls for hanging in there and fighting back that last quarter,” Dexter coach Eric Sitze said. “We had a lot of girls step up at the right time. Febe (Worley), Kenady (Krapf) and Brooklyn (Goodman) hit some timely shots for us at key moments. Then we got a couple big rebounds from Mo (Mauriona Menley) and Kate that we didn’t get at Cape the other night. That really helped us finish off the fourth quarter.”

The game was back-and-forth throughout, with the scored tied at 12 after the opening period and Dexter holding a 25-21 lead at the intermission. However, the Lady Mules limited Dexter to a Krapf triple in the third period to take a narrow lead to the fourth.

“It was a tough, hard-fought SEMO Conference game,” Sitze said. “We had a really good first half and executed well on both ends of the floor. Bluff did a good job adjusting in the third quarter and took some things away from us. They have really improved since the summer. Coach Dugas has done a great job with them this year.”

Said Dugas: “Overall, I think we played a good game. I definitely wish we could’ve pulled out the win, but it just helps us to see areas where we need to do better going into these last few weeks and into postseason.”

Nichols led the Lady Bearcats with 16 points, while Krapf had nine, Worley added eight and Menley finished with seven.

“I think Ireland did a good job guarding Menley,” Dugas said. “She’s definitely one of their go-to players offensively and I think we did a good job of not letting her take over the game.”

Julissa Johnson and Jadyn Brandon each had 11 points to lead Poplar Bluff, while Addy Valenzuela added seven and Paige Epps finished with six.

The Lady Mules are slated to host Portageville on Thursday, while Dexter is off until next Monday when they host Jackson in a SEMO Conference contest.