Web posted
Friday, February 29, 2008
South Haven boys rout Dexter
By DAVID WOLMAN
Traveler Sports Editor
sports@arkcity.net
Following last Saturday's loss to Norwich in the Class 1A regional championship game, South Haven coach Darren McDorman delivered a humbling message to his team in practice this week.
"I told them that anything can happen this time of year and records don't mean anything," he said. "A team like Dexter, if they get hot, they can be pretty deadly. I just told them that we needed to come out with some fire, some intensity and turn up the defense."
He knew that a loss to Dexter last night would end its season.
It took only a few minutes to make sure that wouldn't happen.
South Haven dominated in nearly every phase of Thursday's Class 1A sub-state semifinal, jumping out to an early double digit-lead en route to an easy 64-33 drubbing of Dexter.
South Haven advances to Saturday's 3 p.m. sub-state championship. It will face Colony-Crest (23-1). Dexter finished the season 8-16.
South Haven (17-7) jumped out to a 13-2 lead just three minutes into the game, forcing Dexter coach Dennis Bryant into burning a timeout. Nathen Yunker scored eight of his game-high 17 points in the first quarter.
"From the field, he's been kind of struggling of late," McDorman said. "He just stepped up and made a lot of shots last night."
Jake Davidson added 13 points and Kalen Fitch 10.
South Haven held Dexter scoreless for a span of several minutes in the first quarter, until Bradley Berkley hit a three-pointer to end the drought. Berkley led Dexter with nine points. Tyler Marker added seven.
South Haven built a 21-5 lead after the first quarter, and a 40-16 advantage at halftime.
"Our defense was clicking and so was our offense," McDorman said. "We just came out clicking on all cylinders."
Dexter was limited to one shot on many of its possessions. Early on, Dexter used a press defense in an attempt to South Haven's offense. But South Haven consistently broke the press, forcing Dexter to quickly change defenses.
South Haven increased its lead to 53-25 after three quarters.
"We worked hard in practice on our offense and that really helped because we ran our half-court offense really well last night," he said.
Dexter 5 11 9 8 -- 33
South Haven 21 19 13 11 -- 64
Dexter -- Berkley 9, Marker 7, Stone 4, Pudden 4, Muntz 3, E. Pappan 3, Pettigrew 3. Totals 14 (4) 3-9 33.
South Haven -- Yunker 17, Davidson 13, Fitch 10, Spencer 8, Blaylock 6, Parcher 2, Curl 2, Berry 2, Howell 2, Creed 2. Totals 24 (2) 10-19 64.
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