Bearcats stay hot; dominate Woodland

Dexter's Tyler Miller prepares to put up a shot around three Woodland defenders on Friday night in Dexter. Brent Shipman, Staff

DEXTER -- Fresh off a big win over Notre Dame Thursday, Dexter kept things rolling Friday evening with a 68-40 romp over the visiting Woodland Cardinals on Homecoming night.

"We came out a little flat it felt like and never really picked up the energy 100 percent," Dexter's Alan Flannigan said. "But that's kind of coming off a tough game last night. We still played well enough to get the job done."

Opening up with a 16-4 run in the first six minutes of play, the Bearcats were able to quickly put the Cardinals in their rearview before running away to a 39-15 advantage going into halftime.

Picking up where they left off, Dexter's Jordan Fitts and Tyler Miller hit back-to-back 3-pointers to open the third, which ended up being the Bearcats biggest frame of the night scoring 23 points.

Though Woodland was able to end the quarter with a 8-4 run capped by David Gray connecting on a 3-pointer from the top of the arc with only a second left, Dexter had already pushed their lead to 37 by that point and could easily absorb the damage.

In a fourth quarter where both team's benches saw plenty of work, the Cardinals were able to outscore the Bearcats 11-6, but never drew within 25 points of Dexter.

"I thought (our kids) came out with good intensity and we played hard right off the bat," Dexter head coach Rob Nichols said. "We tired pretty quickly, which we expected after last night's game, but all-in-all we played pretty well.

"We were sloppy at times, but part of that's when you're subbing a whole lot kids can't really get in the flow of the game and there's just going to be sloppy mistakes."

On a night where nine Bearcats contributed at least a basket, Flannigan easily led the pack with 22-points, including 10 as part of the Bearcats first quarter push.

Tying for second on the team, both Fitts and Josh Sifford had nine points on the night with both players scoring all nine on 3-point shots.

For Woodland, Martin Williams and Neil Johnson led the way with 12 points each.

The win helps mark a big turnaround for the Bearcats as they were able to push their record past the .500 mark on the season.

After starting out 0-5, Dexter has taken 7 of 8 to move to 7-6 on the year.

While happy with his team's progress, Nichols expects his squad to keep charging as the season goes on, making their rough start a distant memory.

"When you start 0-5 it's a long time to get back to .500," he said. "It's good to get there, but there's a lot of basketball left to played.

"The goals not to be (around) .500, it's to be way above .500, so hopefully we can keep climbing."

Dexter will next take on the visiting Bloomfield Wildcats Tuesday at 6 p.m.

WOODLAND (40) -- Nick Deck 2, David Gray 4, Martin Williams 12, Clayton Olmetti 2, Dylan Miller 4, Neil Johnson 12, Lance Yount 4. FG 15, FT 7-18, F 14. (3-pointers: Williams 2, Gray 1. Fouled out: none).

DEXTER (68) -- Jake Cox 4, Jordan Fitts 9, Bryn Hester 2, Josh Sifford 9, Alan Flannigan 22, Jake Lee 2, Tyler Miller 6, Jacob Bollinger 8, Taylor Jarrell 4. FG 25, FT 10-20, F 17. (3-pointers: Fitts 3, Sifford 3, Flannigan 1, Miller 1. Fouled out: none).