Tater's Two Cents - Jan. 4

Welcome to the a new year of Tater's Two Cents -- a look around the DAR coverage area. I figured I'd take a look back at what we learned after the first month of high school basketball for this edition.

With the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament wrapping up just a few days ago, we'll start with some items from there.

- The BCT gave me my first look at Dexter and I came away pretty impressed. The Bearcats work very well as a team and their 5-6 record just reflects how tough that early season schedule is. I think Dexter will really take off in January when they start playing more SCAA games. For three quarters in the BCT championship, Dexter played well in all facets with the exception of free throw shooting. They were 3-of-8 in the first three quarters and 5-of-11 on the night.

- Despite a quarterfinals loss, Bernie at 10-1 still to me has to be one of the most impressive teams in the area after finishing fifth. I just like how hard this team works on defense. Two of the Mules' seniors got some playing time this year but are really starting to show they belong. Cameron Shipman who is deadly from beyond-the-arc while Sammy Walker had a very good tournament as well and is turning into one of the area's top post players. Combine that with Jordan McGowan, the Mules should be either ranked or close to it when the first poll comes out.

- Twin Rivers has been an interesting story so far this year with a record of 7-4 with six of their games coming against three opponents. The Royals are 1-1 this year against teams they've played more than once (Bernie, Bloomfield and Portageville). I still think they have one of the deepest teams around, play well defensively and have very strong post play. Once they dig a little deeper into conference play, the Royals could take off.

- The Doniphan Dons had a terriffic start to the tournament with a solid win over Hayti. Derek Hutchins netted 36 points in that game but things went south for Doniphan with losses to Dexter and then Bernie which are two tough draws. Just like Twin Rivers, I think as time goes on this season the Dons will come together and should be a force in the OFC come tournament time.

- He is out of the DAR's coverage area, but what a performance by Richland's Ryan Kleffer who put in 54 points on the second day of the BCT against Puxico, which was three short of the tournament record. Kleffer led the tournament by more than 10 points per game in the Rebels' three games at the tournament, averaging 35.0. Listed below were the scoring leaders and All-Tournament players from last week.

player gms. avg.

x-Ryan Kleffer, Richland 3 35

x-Alan Flannigan, Dexter 4 24.5

Tyler Woolard, Puxico 2 20.5

Derek Hutchins, Doniphan 3 20.3

Zane Betz, Van Buren 3 19.6

Cody Rector, Van Buren 3 19

x-Jamie Massey, Holcomb 4 18.3

x-Cameron Shipman, Bernie 4 18

Taylor Smith, Doniphan 3 18

Quentin Jackson, Malden 2 17.5

x-Fred Treadwell, Portageville 4 17.3

x-Sammy Walker, Bernie 4 16.5

x-Jordan McGowan, Bernie 4 15.8

x-Seth Hill, Bloomfield 4 15.8

Brayton Klaus, Saxony 3 15.6

Connor Scott, East Prairie 2 15

x-Dustin Teague, Twin Rivers 4 14.5

x-AD Hamilton, Hayti 4 14.3

x-Fred Garmon, Kennett 4 13.5

x-Randrick Caruthers, Kennett 4 13.5

x-Tevin Walker, Portageville 4 13.3

Michael Duncan, Van Buren 3 13.3

Jack Walls, Kennett 4 12.5

x-Cole McBroom, Twin Rivers 4 12.5

Richard Forshee, Richland 3 12

Jordan Fitts, Dexter 4 11.3

Dylan Bader, Bloomfield 4 11.5

Nathan Martin, Puxico 2 11.5

Jerome Thomas, Hayti 4 11.5

Clayton Carver, Saxony 3 11

Michael Snider, Twin Rivers 4 10

Cameron Wallace, Kennett 4 10

x-All Tournament Team

Looking ahead to this week:

-Twin Rivers travels to Bernie tonight (Tuesday) in the teams' third and final meeting of the year. Who would win if these two squads played a seven-game series? The Royals also have huge game on Friday night at Doniphan which has pretty big implications for the OFC tournament draw. No love lost between those two teams.

- What should be a very good girls game takes place at Neelyville on Thursday as Naylor comes to town. The two teams played at the Lady Royals Classic two weeks ago with the Lady Tigers winning 56-39. Neelyville is 9-1 on the year while Naylor is 4-3. This could be a preview of the OFC finals come February.