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It’s been a long season thus far for the Dupo Tigers Varsity boy’s basketball team. The Tigers came into Friday night’s contest with the Marissa Meteors with a 3-15 record and were 0-6 in Cahokia Conference Kaskaskia Division play. Make that 3-16 and 0-7 after the Marissa Meteors streaked to victory over the Tigers Friday night.
The Tigers were competitive for most of the first quarter, something that we’ve seen from this team throughout the season. But with the score 8-4 in favor of the Meteors, Marissa went on a 12-3 run to finish the quarter and set the tone for the remainder of the contest. Dupo would now have to play catch up for the remainder of the game, something they have not done well this season as they trailed 20-7 after the first quarter.
Dupo found ways to score in the second quarter but could not find a way to stop Marissa from scoring. The Meteors’ perimeter shooting was exceptional Friday night and forced the Tiger defenders to spread the defense. That in turn opened up the middle and soon Marissa was having their way. Although Marissa went to their bench early in the game and outscored the Tigers by just five points in the second quarter 17-12, it was enough to expand their already sizeable lead to eighteen points 37-19.
Marissa had all their starters back in the lineup to begin the third quarter and the Tigers had no answer for them in the second half. The Meteors dominated the Tigers in every facet of the game in the third quarter outscoring the hapless Tigers 22-7. The Meteors continued their hot perimeter shooting and their hustling pressure on defense kept the Tigers at bay as they led 59-26 after three quarters.
With the game clearly out of hand both coaches went to their benches in the fourth quarter to give other players valuable game time. For Tiger fans that meant getting to see some underclassmen like Freshman Jimmie Dickerson who has been getting increased game time with the Varsity over the last month. Kudos also go out to Senior reserve Steven Antoff, who although has been little used this year, scored five points in little more than two minutes in the game. But the Meteors prevailed in the fourth quarter as well outscoring the Tigers 13-10 and winning the game 72-36.
The Tigers were led in scoring by Matt Ragsdale with 11 points, followed by Steven Antoff with 5 points, and several others with 4 or fewer. The Tigers were scheduled to play for 7th place in the Hancock Invitational Tournament on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. against Construction Careers Academy of St Louis.
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