C4D1 girls: Doniphan survives Dexter determination

DEXTER — There’s been a Willis Reed sighting in Dexter.

Dexter Lady Bearcat senior center Caitlin Giles continued her battle with a knee injury while postponing surgery until season’s end to try and help the No. 4 seed Dexter fight for a Class 4 District 1 title this week, continuing with Thursday’s semifinal against the top-seeded Doniphan Donettes.

Doniphan used a spectacular defensive effort in the fourth quarter and held off an inspired Lady Bearcats performance to rally for a 37–35 win and stay alive in the postseason.

“They do a great job of getting the game at their pace,“ Doniphan coach Adam Epps said about Dexter. “We didn’t play our ‘A’ game tonight and sometimes that’s a part of it. This time of year sometimes you just have to survive and if it’s ugly, it’s ugly. I’m really proud of our resolve — they never gave in and they made plays at the end.”

Dexter coach Eric Sitze had words of praise for his squad after Thursday’s game.

“Unfortunately, we just didn’t get it finished off,” Sitze said. “I told him this is been one of my most fun groups to coach just because of how much they’ve overcome and they keep battling for me. There was a lot of tears in that locker room so I knew there was a lot of girls that cared about what happened tonight.

“We lose two seniors (Giles and Glaus) and those girls have been great leaders for us and really showed us how to persevere. I’m really going to miss them a lot next year.”

Epps noted his respect for Giles.

“We bring out the best in everybody,“ Epps said. “We’ve had to work really hard, we haven’t lost them in five years, and not any of them have been easy. Hats off to them, they had a really good game plan and that’s one of the toughest girls I’ve ever seen play, playing out there with a torn ACL trying to do the best she can and I thought she did a good job.

“Hopefully we come out a little more loose on Saturday.”

The Lady Bearcats came out cooking the nets with back-to-back triples by Lloyd and Nichols while Doniphan countered with Redus inside.

Dexter made defense its calling card and it was definitely living up to its rep early in the contest as the Lady Bearcats grabbed an 8-4 lead in the game’s first three-plus minutes.

Then Allison Turnbo got loose inside on a slick pass by Karis Kennedy and Dexter led 10-4.

A Giles jumper kept the hosts up six points as she continued to provide inspiration for her squad as well as needed toughness.

Doniphan was able to get only a few clean perimeter looks, converting on one, and Dexter led 12-9 after eight minutes.

Turnbo drilled a triple 90 seconds into the second quarter to put Dexter up 15-9 as its concerted defensive efforts were paying dividends.

Then Nichols created a splendid and-one opportunity on a spin move past her on-ball defender and then incurred a foul by Redus on the make and suddenly Dexter led 18-9.

Doniphan pecked away beginning there, scoring the next five points, to pull within 18-14.

Yet, Dexter stayed on point, made Doniphan work for everything tenfold and ultimately took a 22-18 lead into the break.

Redus finished with a first-half high of 11 points.

The halftime break didn’t cool the intensity and Nichols hit a triple and another and-one to give Dexter a 28-20 lead.

Kirby hit a hoop and two free throws to pull the Donettes to within 30-28 with 2:25 left in the third quarter.

A Monaghan runner then tied the game at 30-all a minute later.

Maddie Glaus changed that with a cucumber cool triple and Dexter went into the fourth quarter up by that hoop.

Dexter went into grind mode and worked for high percentage looks, but Doniphan can defend too and the two heavyweights kept landing punches and counter-punches to make any Rocky sequel jealous.

Monaghan scored after seeing a loose ball jump into her hands to put Doniphan up 34-33 with under five minutes to go.

Then Kirby came up nails with a 3-bomb with 3:30 to go and Doniphan led 37-33.

The Donettes defense made Dexter work on the return trip and the Lady Bearcats settled for a three that missed and Doniphan was in control.

Nichols splashed home two free throws to cut the deficit it in half for her girls and finally get points on the board in the quarter.

Dexter then made a defensive stop of its own and got the ball back with 80 ticks left in regulation. They were unable to convert for a tie or lead and ultimately had to do foul with 32.8 seconds remaining.

A missed free throw gave Dexter another chance to extend its season and after some jitters and a ball rolling out of bounds, the Lady Bearcats had a chance with 11.9 seconds left.

The Doniphan defense was too tough and the Lady Bearcats were denied a story for their grandchildren’s grandchildren.

“We are the kind of team that when adversity strikes us, we have each other’s backs, and we always come back and find a way,“ Doniphan senior Brook Klepzig said. “I knew we were going to get their best shot just because we’ve always been close against each other. We’re the number one seed so we are the target and we knew coming in everyone was aiming for us.

“They were definitely doing a good job rebounding against us and they did a good job finding our shooters and being able to extend their defense. It’s not a bad way to start the playoffs but we should’ve come out and done a lot better. We knew the expectations people have for us, and what it was going to be like in the environment. As a senior in a leader, I should’ve done better myself. We won at the end of the day and we’re in the championship, so…”

The Donettes were paced by Kenzie Redus with 17 points, while McKenna Monaghan added 10 and Gracen Kirby chipped in seven.

Dexter got 18 points from Kate Nichols and five each from Madison Glaus and Abbie Lloyd.

But these Lady Bearcats have earned respect for years to come.

“I am so proud of my girls — they battled all game long,” Sitze said. “Caitlin playing on the ACL, and we executed all game. One of those shots go in for us, we get a call here and there … I thought the game was played real hard by both teams. I don’t have a bad thing to say.”

Doniphan (25-2) now plays Saxony Lutheran in the finals Saturday at 2 p.m. The winner of that game earns a spot in Tuesday’s Class 4 sectional against either Park Hills Central or Potosi in Farmington.