Dexter's Harris voted SEMO Conference's top player

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Last week's weather forecast in Columbia: Raining 'Cats and 'Dogs.

That forecast remained the same Wednesday night at the 55th annual Poplar Bluff Letterman Club Basketball Banquet held at the Black River Coliseum.

The 'Cats, also known as the Dexter Lady Bearcats, and the 'Dogs, best known as the Sikeston Bulldogs, continued racking up awards after they each traveled to the Show-Me Showdown at Mizzou Arena where Sikeston finished third and Dexter fourth.

Dexter senior Brittany Harris took home top honors for the SEMO Conference by winning the Bob Gray Award while Sikeston senior Vashawn Ruffin won the John Gibbs Award.

Dexter's Chad Allen won the SEMO Conference Coach of the Year award for girls while Gregg Holifield from Sikeston took home the boys honor.

Each team also won the regular-season championship in which the Sikeston boys shared with Charleston.

"Always at the end of the year at district time, us and Sikeston are really close because we all cheer for each other," Harris said. "It's really cool."

Ruffin said he had a good time going all the way to states with Dexter.

"It's fun," Ruffin said. "We are both red and black we've got this saying 'Raining Cats and Dogs' and 'Red and Black to CoMo'. We're a team basically."

Harris won the Gray Award for the second consecutive year. She is the second Dexter player in the last six years to win the award twice as Katelyn Heil did the same in 2008 and 2009.

"I'm definitely glad I was chosen for the award twice," Harris said. "It means a lot to me. I'm just glad that all my hard work paid off."

Allen has coached Harris for six years and was proud of her accomplishments.

"My first year at Dexter she was in seventh grade," he said. "It's been a thrill to coach her. She's been through so much, I felt like she definitely deserves that award."

Harris finished her career as Dexter's all-time leading scorer. She averaged 16.8 points per game this season, averaged 8.5 rebounds and shot 64 percent from the field.

"Not only a great player on the court but a great person off the court," Allen said. "She's a great leader and I know she'll be successful in life."

Harris is undecided on where she will play college basketball next year but will narrow down her choices in the upcoming weeks.

"I haven't decided where I'm going yet," Harris said. "I'm going on a few visits next week. I'll know in a few weeks where I'm going."

Harris credited Allen for molding her into a great player.

"He's been great," she said. "I'm so glad I had a coach like him. Not every coach cares about their team like he does. He generally cares for each one of us."

Ruffin averaged 16.4 points per game which was second on Sikeston this year. He shot 44 percent from the field, 35 percent from 3-point land and 80 percent from the free-throw line. He dished out 6.6 assists per game and had 82 steals.

"I don't have the best stats that go into the books," Ruffin said. "I do many things on the court though that you can't put down in the stat book."

Ruffin was pleased to win the award. He is the third from Sikeston to win the Gibbs Award, the last being Michael Porter in 2009.

"I just got recognized for all my hard work and my dedication in the gym," Ruffin said.

Ruffin also credited his coach, Holifield, for helping him reach this point.

"He's a great coach," Ruffin said. "The best coach. He really coached me and he's just a great guy overall."

Sikeston and Charleston boys were both awarded the SEMO Conference Team Championship award for tying in the regular season while Dexter won the girls award.

Dexter Junior Hannah Noe and Ruffin were the top SEMO Conference Free Throw shooters at 74 percent and 83 percent respectively.

Harris won the SEMO Conference scoring title for the girls while New Madrid County Central sophomore Willie Jimerson won the boys scoring title.

Hall of Fame coach Lennies McFerren was honored with the first Tom Hoover Lifetime Acheivement Award. McFerren, who was the keynote speaker for the night, won nine state titles between coaching stints at Charleston and New Madrid.