Stories from Wednesday, February 22, 2017

To fend off Farmington's size, the Poplar Bluff girls basketball team turned up the pressure on the guards. The Mules forced 32 turnovers and took the lead by scoring the first eight points of the second half by not allowing a shot for 3 1/2 minutes for a 58-47 win at the Senior High Gym...

VAN BUREN -- The Ellington boys basketball team cleared a hurdle and survived a scare in the MSHSAA Class 2 District 3 semifinals Monday night. The second-seeded Whippets trailed for all of three minutes early in the first quarter but had to hold off everything upset minded and sixth-seeded Van Buren threw its way late before advancing to the championship game with a 62-47 win...

VAN BUREN -- Neelyville coach Patrick Morton didn't even need to look at the stat sheet to know his team had its worst shooting performance of the season Tuesday night. It wasn't pretty from the start and the fourth-seeded Tigers never got going in a 61-39 loss to top-seeded Thayer in the MSHSAA Class 2 District 3 semifinals...

The Three Rivers bullpen nearly shut down the Warriors. The Raiders gave up just one hit after losing the lead in the fifth inning and rallied to beat Rend Lake 6-4 on Tuesday at Roger Pattillo Field. "Four scoreless was definitely a huge part of that game," Three Rivers coach Stacey Burkey said...

JACKSON -- The Lady Bearcats got to play spoiler in their final game of the regular season. Dexter defeated Jackson 63-52, and in doing so, handed the SEMO Conference title to Saxony Lutheran. Jackson would have won it with a victory Monday. In a rematch of the SEMO Conference Tournament final, which Jackson won by five points, Chaylea Mosby powered Dexter's offense from the opening tip...

MALDEN -- The top-seeded Malden girls basketball scored the first 18 points then held off a late charge to beat fourth-seeded Charleston 68-57 in the MSHSAA Class 3 District 1 semifinal Monday night. "We started off well," Malden coach Mike Vipperman said. "But we had well over 30 turnovers and usually you don't win basketball games having that many turnovers."...