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Familiar SEMO Conference foes set to battle yet again
Sunday, January 12, 2025
Kennett High School sophomore guard Alyce Edwards drives past Dexter High School senior guard Kate Nichols last month in the SEMO Conference Tournament at Notre Dame High School. The two teams will meet for the third time this season on Monday at Kennett.
Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com
There will be no secrets kept between the varsity girl’s basketball teams of Dexter and Kennett when the two squads matchup on Monday at Kennett at 7:30 p.m.
The Bearcats (5-6) and Indians (7-5) are seeing each other for the third time in the last two months. The teams competed in the Kennett Jamboree in November before facing each other in the SEMO Conference Tournament last month, which resulted in a 58-55 Dexter win.
Veteran Dexter coach Eric Sitze knows all about the biggest challenge in beating Kennett: Containing Indian sophomore guard Alyce Edwards.
“She elevates so well,” Sitze said of Edwards after that victory. “She ‘Euro-steps’ and jump stops so well; she creates so much space for herself.”
Edwards tallied 34 points in that earlier loss, and she hasn’t endured any type of sophomore slump this winter after being named the SEMO Conference Player of the Year as a freshman.
“She’s been working hard,” Kennett coach Erika Cobb told Semoball.com of Edwards recently. “She’s been a great scorer for us and takes care of the ball. She can shoot and get to the rim.”
Edwards recently notched her 1,000th career point, which is quite a feat for a player just 38 games into her high school career.
“This isn’t even an easy accomplishment to achieve in four years,” Cobb added, “let alone as only a sophomore.”
Edwards averages 31.2 points per game this season compared to 24.8 points last winter.
Both teams have endured up-and-down seasons this winter.
The Indians had alternated wins and losses before a recent victory over Malden gave Cobb’s girls a two-game win streak.
Kennett had been a staunch defensive program in recent seasons, as it averaged less than 42 points per game allowed in each of the past three seasons. However, this year, the Indians are allowing nearly 59 points per game while its offensive production has dropped 13 points per game from last year’s 21-win team.
“Compared to what it has been,” Cobb told Semoball.com after beating the Green Wave, “our defense was much better. We were active, moving to our spots, rebounding and the effort was definitely the game changer.”
For the Bearcats, they looked very solid in a recent loss to an eight-win Farmington team – if you take away one period.
Dexter battled the Knights competitively in three periods but allowed Farmington to dominate the second quarter of play 27-6.
“The pace of play of what they were playing at,” Sitze said following the loss, “versus what we were playing at, we didn’t match that. We haven’t seen that (pressure) in a while, probably since the SEMO Conference Tournament. We haven’t seen that pace of play.
“We adjusted in the second half a lot better. We did switch defenses a little bit and didn’t give them so many open looks on the 3-point line.”
Monday’s game will match two of the top guards in the SEMO Conference, as Dexter’s offense revolves around senior Kate Nichols.
“Kate is just a hard-nosed competitor,” Sitze said of Nichols earlier this season. “She wants to win. She plays hard for us every night.
“She leads by example every night.”
In the earlier game against Kennett, Nichols totaled 32 points, including 18 following the intermission while the Bearcat defense limited Edwards to just 11 points in the final 16 minutes of action.