Sikeston boys basketball team claims SEMO Conference regular season title with 85-70 win over Jackson

JACKSON, Mo. – The Sikeston Bulldogs have been pointing to this game for a full calendar year.

Last year, Jackson ruined Sikeston’s Senior Night with a 69-67 win over the Bulldogs at the Field House.

On Tuesday, Sikeston was not only wanting some payback for the disappointing loss a year ago, but the conference title was on the line as well.

The Bulldogs got their revenge with an 84-70 win at Jackson High School, but more importantly captured their third straight SEMO Conference regular season title.

“There’s been a crazy amount of great players that have come through this conference so to win it three years in a row speaks a lot about our players and our program in general,” Sikeston senior Fred Thatch said. “It’s just tremendous for us.”

It’s Sikeston’s eighth conference title in the last 11 seasons.

“It’s awesome,” Sikeston coach Gregg Holifield said. “It’s one of our goals at the start of the season. It’s such a proud conference with so many good players and programs over the years. I’m very happy for our players to win the conference again. To be in what I consider the best conference in the state of Missouri and to win it eight times in the last 11 years, I just can’t say enough about our players.”

Tuesday’s game was set up to be a battle with Jackson’s tremendous size, athleticism and talent.

After a 14-14 deadlock in the first quarter, Sikeston began to establish itself with their trademark pressure defense which led to numerous run-outs and fast-breaks.

Sikeston forced Jackson into 13 of their 18 turnovers in the first half as the Bulldogs capitalized on the Indian mistakes.

Jackson (13-11, 4-4 SEMO Conference) trimmed the Bulldogs’ lead to 29-28 after a Desmond Morris 3-pointer, but Sikeston finished the half on a 9-2 run capped by an Owen Long 17-footer with three seconds left to lead 38-30.

The Indians twice cut the Bulldog lead to five points in the third quarter, but Sikeston answered with baskets from Trey Jenkins, Payton Howard and a steal and layup by Kevin Jones to lead 49-38 with 4:48 left in the third.

Twenty seconds later, Fred Thatch converted a four-point play in which he was fouled on a 3-point shot that banked in. He hit the free throw to build the Sikeston lead to 53-38.

It was just that kind of night for Thatch, who finished with 27 points with eight rebounds, seven assists, four steals and no turnovers. He shot 9 of 15 (60 percent) from the field and 7 of 7 from the free throw line.

“We knew we owed it to them from last year,” Thatch said. “Jackson can be a great team if they play hard and play together. They’ve got the biggest team in the conference and probably, if you ask me, the most talented team in the conference based on personnel. We knew it was going to be a dogfight coming into Jackson, but I like how our team responded. We’re becoming more of a team. You can see it. Even when we hit a little adversity here and there, everybody just grinds it out and we stay together. So that game was big for us. We needed to win that game.”

After Thatch’s four-point play, Jackson made a run to cut Sikeston’s lead to 55-48 after a Pete Lake 3-pointer, but the Bulldogs answered with two Thatch free throws and an inside basket plus the foul by Keyth Blissett.

Sikeston carried a 63-50 lead into the fourth quarter.

Jackson never got closer than 11 in the fourth as Sikeston maintained its lead.

The Bulldogs punctuated the victory on an emphatic block off the backboard by Jenkins that triggered a fastbreak by Parker Long who dished to Thatch for the dunk to reach the biggest lead of the night at 81-65 with two minutes left.

Jenkins finished with 16 points on 7 of 8 shooting (88 percent) with six rebounds, five blocks, two assists and two steals.

“Trey was very active,” Holifield said. “He was cutting and diving to the goal and our players were doing a great job of finding him. He rebounded very well and guarded very well.”

Parker Long finished with 13 points and four assists. Jones had seven points and six assists.

The Bulldogs finished with 23 assists as a team compared to just nine turnovers.

Gavin Harris led the Indians with 27 points, including seven 3-pointers. Lake finished with 13 points.

Sikeston, ranked No. 1 in Class 4, has now won 13 straight games and improved to 23-1 on the season.

The Bulldogs will finish its regular season schedule on Thursday at the Field House against Class 5 juggernaut Chaminade in a game that was rescheduled from being snowed out in January. It will be a varsity only contest starting at 6 p.m.

“Our guys have worked hard to get to this point,” Holifield said. “We just take it one practice and one game at a time and try to be playing our best basketball at the start of the district tournament.”

 

 

SIKESTON (84) – Fred Thatch 27, Trey Jenkins 16, Parker Long 13, Payton Howard 8, Kevin Jones 7, Owen Long 7, Keyth Blissett 2, Dylon Mills 2. FG 31, FT 18-21, F 19. (3-pointers: Thatch 2, P. Long 1, O. Long 1. Fouled out: none).

JACKSON (70) – Gavin Harris 27, Pete Lake 13, Grayson Ward 9, Cameron Hester 8, Seth Beussink 6, Desmond Morris 5, Payton Salyer 2. FG 26, FT 9-19, F 19. (3-pointers: Harris 7, Lake 1, Morris 1. Fouled out: Lake).

Junior varsity

The Sikeston JV team finished its season undefeated with a 50-38 win over Jackson to close out the year with a record of 20-0.

It’s Sikeston’s third undefeated junior varsity season under coach Brian James and the first since going undefeated in back-to-back seasons in 2010 and 2011.

Sikeston was led by Clark Steward’s 15 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists, three steals and a block. Colby Henson finished with 13 points while Nick Harrison had 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

 

 

SIKESTON (50) – Clark Steward 15, Colby Henson 13, Nick Harrison 12, Payton Howard 3, Gage Rolwing 3, Kenyon Smith 2, Lontas McClinton 2. FG 21, FT 3-6, F 10. (3-pointers: Henson 3, Howard 1, Rolwing 1. Fouled out: none).

JACKSON (38) – Luke Mirly 17, Luke Reynolds 7, Austin Gilliland 6, Michael Schneider 4, Drake Winschel 2, Bronson Bell 2. FG 14, FT 3-4, F 10. (3-pointers: Mirly 4, Gilliland 2, Reynolds 1. Fouled out: none).