SIKESTON, Mo. -- Dexter boys basketball coach Josh Dowdy kneeled down outside his team's locker room Monday night, trying to make sense of the Bearcats' enormous victory in the SEMO Conference Tournament.
The seventh-seeded Bearcats had just upset second-seeded Charleston 59-54 in the first round of the league tournament at the Sikeston Fieldhouse.
Dexter beat the Bluejays for the first time since 2004 and advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament for the first time since it resumed in 2006. The Bearcats won three titles when the conference tournament was held from 1960-67.
"We have been working so hard the last four or five years to try to break through and get us a big victory. This has to be the one," Dowdy said. "I knew we had a good preseason. I knew we were working hard. It's nice to see it pay off for these kids. They have really put in a lot of time, mornings (and) afternoons. We're challenging them everyday, and they're responding. We are so proud of these guys right now."
Dexter used its half-court offense to keep the Bluejays from running their typical fast-paced attack, and got balanced scoring and clutch free throw shooting to advance to Thursday's semifinal matchup against sixth-seeded Notre Dame, which upset third-seeded Jackson 73-67 earlier Monday night.
In Monday's other game, eighth-seeded New Madrid County Central beat ninth-seeded Kennett 58-41 in a play-in game.
The Bearcats (1-2) sank 15 of 18 free throws in the fourth quarter and 17 of 22 overall.
Dowdy said that free throws haven't been a strength for his ballclub.
"(Assistant coach Lloyd Hyten) has put a little free throw board in and put a lot of emphasis on free throws," Dowdy said. "I'm glad it paid off for us tonight. If we hadn't had those down the stretch, we wouldn't have been on the winning end tonight."
The Bluejays, who trailed from the start, climbed within two points in the closing seconds. They used their full-court pressure to generate opportunities late.
"We had the two minutes there near the end where we lost our composure a little bit when they came after us," Dowdy said, "but we did just enough to hang on in the end."
Samuel Bledsoe and Terridean Bogan made back-to-back 3-pointers and Jeremy Tucker sank a free throw to close the Bearcats' lead to 55-53 with 17.7 seconds remaining. They led by as many as 11 (47-36) on Ben Sindle's 3-pointer near the midway point.
Single, who finished with 11 points, went 2 for 2 from the free-throw line with 10.6 seconds remaining, and Alan Pippins made two more with 2.7 seconds left to secure the win.
The Bearcats built an 8-0 lead behind two baskets each by Dawson Kasting and Gabe Jackson to begin the game.
Delontre Gillespie made two free throws with 3:10 left for the Bluejays' first points, and Bledsoe's basket in the paint with less than a minute left in the opening quarter was their first field goal.
Sindle and Seth Rogers each made 3-pointers, and the Bearcats led 16-6 after one quarter.
Charleston began to capitalize on dribble penetration in the second quarter and climbed to within 26-21 at halftime.
Tucker scored nine of his 11 points in the second quarter, and Demarcus Sharp had six his 14.
Tucker's jumper closed Dexter's lead to 21-19, but Clay Mullins, who finished with 11 points, responded with a driving layup and Jackson converted a three-point play with 17.5 seconds remaining.
Jackson finished with a game-high 19 points.
"I thought Gabe Jackson was real big tonight," Dowdy said. "We've been asking him to step up and take us to the next level. Clay and Ben have been great all year long, but Gabe was a monster in there tonight. When he plays that way, we are a much better ball team."
The Bluejays climbed within one point three times in the third.
Mardareyon Clark, who scored a team-high 17 points scored on a putback and a dunk to cut Dexter's lead to a point before Ke'Sean Griffin made two free throws with 40.4 seconds left to slice Dexter's lead to 30-29.
However, Mullins answered with a three-point play with 8.7 seconds remaining for a 33-29 Dexter lead after three quarters.
Clark scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Blue Jays' charge, and Jackson tallied eight points for Dexter, including a 4-for-4 showing at the free-throw line.
"At practice, we've been shooting so many free throws," Jackson said. "I think we've probably shot over 1,000 free throws, each of us, in the past two weeks."