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Sikeston boys clinch fifth St. Dominic tournament title
O'FALLON -- The Sikeston Bulldogs have found a home away from home.
Although they had a hiccup last season, the Bulldogs are champions once again in the St. Dominic Christmas Tournament, defeating second-seeded Fort Zumwalt South on Wednesday, 58-43 to claim their fifth title in six years in the tournament.
Top-seeded Sikeston (10-0) avenged its only loss ever in the tournament. Zumwalt South defeated the Bulldogs 82-80 in overtime in last year's championship game.
Sikeston sophomore Fred Thatch said Zumwalt South was the exact opponent they were hoping to face this year for the title.
"It feels great but it feels even better to beat Fort Zumwalt South since they knocked us out in overtime last year. It feels good to get revenge on them," Thatch said.
Thatch had a monster game in being named all-tournament for the second straight year. He finished with a career-high 18 rebounds to go with his 20 points, six assists and two steals.
The Bulldogs also harassed Zumwalt South's ball handlers all night with its swarming, pressure defense. Sikeston forced 17 turnovers and kept Zumwalt South's shooters out of rhythm all night -- failing to make a single 3-point shot, in particular standout junior Drake Whaley, who finished with six points but misfired on all nine of his attempts from beyond the arc.
"All his 3's were challenged by good athletes," Zumwalt South coach Bill Friedel said. "He had a couple rim in and out. Usually if he makes one he can get hot, but we just couldn't get him untracked. Sikeston did a good job of shading him and making it tough on him."
Sikeston jumped out to double digit lead early at 15-3 after three consecutive 3-pointers by Dominique Dyes, Thatch and Marquan Nelson.
An Earnest Fobbs basket with three minutes left in the period gave the Bulldogs its biggest lead of the first half at 17-3.
Zumwalt South (10-2) was able to trim the lead to 20-8 by the end of the period.
Sikeston led by as much as 27-14 in the second quarter, but once again South closed the quarter strong, cutting the Bulldog lead to 27-20 by halftime.
"We started off real good," Thatch said. "We had a lot of energy and they started slowing the game down a lot. We talked at halftime about picking up the energy and not getting trapped in with how they were playing. So we picked it up after halftime and kept our intensity and took it away from there."
The Bulldogs still couldn't shake Zumwalt South early in the third quarter as the lead was trimmed to 29-24, but Sikeston began to pull away with a pair of Dyes 3-pointers and a conventional 3-point play by Thatch.
Sikeston led 44-33 entering the fourth quarter after a 3-pointer by freshman Kevin Jones beat the third quarter buzzer.
The Bulldogs put the game away in the final period, leading by as much as 19.
"We can come back against some teams, but a team and program like Sikeston, if you get down 14 that's a big problem," Friedel said.
Thatch punctuated the victory with a vicious one-handed jam in the fourth quarter to ignite the large Bulldog contingent of fans that made the three-hour trip.
"Just unbelievable," Holifield said of Thatch. "He's such a player. He figures out a way to get things done and tonight they had two and three people running at him and he just got on the glass and went to work. As a coach you love players that can rebound and he can flat rebound."
Dyes also was named to the all-tournament team after scoring 17 points with three steals. Juwon Kimble was named to the all-tournament team with seven rebounds in the championship game.
Holifield praised his team's deep production in the tournament.
"Our bench did an outstanding job in this tournament," Holifield said. "Every one of them that went in I thought did a great job with intensity and played well. I thought Deterio [Newman] and Earnest played well. [Don Larry] had a great tournament and Sam Cox came in and gave us valuable minutes. Just a total team effort."
The Bulldogs are now 17-1 all-time in the St. Dominic Tournament. This is the second time Sikeston has defeated Zumwalt South in the tournament final.
"They're a good team," Holifield said. "They've played great people. They have a great program. They spread the floor and they wanted to play at a much slower pace than we do. I thought in the second quarter we were a bit sluggish, but to our credit I think it shows we can play all kinds of different games. Our kids responded well offensively and defensively in the second half. I'm very proud to come in here with a win."
| Fort Zumwalt South | 8 | 12 | 13 | 10 | -- | 43 |
| Sikeston | 20 | 7 | 17 | 14 | -- | 58 |
FORT ZUMWALT SOUTH (43) -- Kai Collier 10, Darious Thomas 10, E.J. Bellinger 6, Chris Jordan 6, Drake Whaley 6, Brandon Hinman 3, Eric Patton 2. FG 18, FT 7-12, F 14. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none).
SIKESTON (58) -- Fred Thatch 20, Dominique Dyes 17, Marquan Nelson 8, Kevin Jones 8, Deterio Newman 2, Earnest Fobbs 2, Juwon Kimble 1. FG 11, FT 9-17, F 14. (3-pointers: Dyes 4, Jones 2, Nelson 2, Thatch 1. Fouled out: none).