Neelyville turns back Lady Bearcats to make another LRCC semifinal

BROSELEY — The Neelyville Lady Tigers basketball team outplayed Dexter in the quarterfinal round of the Lady Royal Christmas Classic on Monday as the Lady Tigers took a 61-45 win over Dexter.

Despite losing some possessions late in the fourth quarter, the Lady Tigers took advantage of a comfortable lead to take care of the Lady Bearcats.

“We definitely need to work on finishing the game stronger than we did,” Neelyville coach Becky Hale said. “But overall we rebounded, we were able to get the ball where we needed it to be and I thought we communicated well on defense.”

Parker Ernst had a solid game for Neelyville as she recorded 23 points and was almost perfect from the charity stripe making 5-of-6 free throws.

“She’s able to move and hit that outside jumper,” Hale said. “She’s tough to guard and I really liked that she was asking for the ball and being able to hit that outside shot.”

For Dexter, Kate Nichols recorded 18 points, while Mauriona Menley had 13.

Neelyville was dominant from start to finish, even going up by 30 points to start the running clock around the five-minute mark of the fourth quarter. However Dexter was able to take advantage of some sloppy play by Neelyville down to stretch to narrow it down to a 16-point game at the final buzzer.

The Lady Bearcats outscored Neelyville 21-15 in the fourth quarter.

Neelyville will take on Portageville in the semifinal, who handed host Twin Rivers a 58-40 loss in the last quarterfinal game on Monday. The semifinal between Neelyville and Portageville will tip off at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, after the semifinal between Poplar Bluff and Doniphan.

In the consolation bracket, Holcomb defeated Hayti 58-48 and Malden bested Naylor 76-52. The consolation semifinals will be on Friday afternoon where Holcomb will play New Madrid County Central at noon and Malden will play Greenville at 1:30 p.m.