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'Dogs roll through South Pem.
SIKESTON -- After struggling through the Dyersburg Christmas Tournament, the Sikeston Bulldogs basketball team felt relieved to get back in the friendly confines of the Field House on Thursday against South Pemiscot.
The meeting between the two Bulldog squads was the first since the 1990-91 season, but the result was much the same as Sikeston dominated its southern neighbors 77-39.
Sikeston (7-5) put together one of its most complete performances of the season in the first half as they built a 51-12 halftime lead.
"I thought we really played well in the first half," said Sikeston coach Gregg Holifield. "We really emphasized getting back and getting in a stance. We've spent a lot of time on defense the last couple days and we're seeing some progress. We just have to keep working."
Even from the start, South Pemiscot was never in the game. Sikeston raced out to a 9-2 lead and extended the advantage 24-6 forcing South Pemiscot coach Chris Moore to burn two timeouts early.
South Pemiscot (6-7) has been one of the premier teams in Class 2 in the area the past two seasons with back-to-back district championships and a combined 47-12 record.
But the team has not been able to put it all together this season, and it showed Thursday night.
"Maybe we were a little bit in awe of who we were playing and the environment we were playing," said Moore. "We're not used to playing in such a nice facility. Sikeston's definitely a good team and they came out ready to play. It just seemed like we were kind of in awe a little bit."
Sikeston led 26-10 after one quarter and led by as much as 51-10 in the second quarter until South Pemiscot's Maurichio Clay scored the team's lone bucket in the period with 30 seconds left.
When it was all said and done, Sikeston had gone on a 27-0 run that spanned the first and second quarters.
But the third quarter was a different story early on as South Pemiscot cut the lead to 51-23, capping a 13-0 run that spanned the second and third quarters.
Holifield then burned a timeout of his own to get his team back on track.
"When you build a big lead you lose focus sometimes and we lost our focus there for about two or three minutes," said Holifield. "I know they have a good squad -- I saw where they beat Portageville in the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament. Their record is a little bit deceiving. On a given night they can be a dangerous team. They have a legitimate chance of winning their district again this year."
Sikeston responded with a 12-4 run before Kaleb Canoy drained a 3-pointer at the third quarter buzzer to make it 63-30.
The mercy rule kept the clock running the entire fourth quarter.
"I thought we battled some in the third quarter -- we kind of regrouped in the second half," said Moore. "It's just kind of hard to do a lot of things when the game gets out of hand."
Sikeston scored numerous baskets in transition following steals. The Bulldogs had 16 steals in the game.
"i know coach Holifield well and he's going to guard hard in the halfcourt man," said Moore. "We just did not get into our offense very easily. Then we'd either force a shot or turn it over and they would get us in transition. They got a lot of transition buckets and a lot of second shots in the first half. When you give a team those kind of looks, they're going to score a lot of points."
Bulldog all-state sophomore Michael Porter continued to dazzle as he scored a game-high 27 points (11-16 shooting) with nine rebounds, five assists, five steals and four blocks in three quarters of action.
"He's so good in the open court and he can get to the rim," said Holifield of Porter. "I thought the players did a nice job of looking for him and finding him in the post with some nice entry passes. It was a total team effort offensively and defensively."
Junior Matt Ritch came off the bench to score a season-high 17 points. Senior Julian Beard scored all 10 of his points in the first half. Senior Isaac Porter had six points and five assists.
Junior Brandon Washington added seven rebounds and two blocks.
South Pemiscot was led by Clay's 10 points. Zach Clay added nine points.
South Pemiscot will play at Kennett on Tuesday. Sikeston will take on SEMO Conference rival Charleston tonight at 6 p.m.
The Sikeston J.V. team improved to 6-3 on the season with a 55-23 victory against South Pemiscot.
Sikeston led 7-2 after one quarter and built the lead to 32-10 by halftime. The Bulldogs led 46-15 heading into the fourth quarter where the mercy rule kept the clock running the rest of the way.
Dominic Fondon led Sikeston with 20 points on 10-11 shooting and six rebounds, all coming in the first half. Freshman Juqualin Wiggins had five rebounds and six assists, all in the first half.
Freshman Eli Jackson added 13 points with six rebounds and three steals.