CHARLESTON, Mo. - The Dexter boys basketball team no longer looks at close losses to their SEMO Conference counterparts as moral victories.
Although they finished 1-7 in conference last season, the Bearcats lost four of those games by seven points or less and feel this year they can flip some of those close losses into big wins.
The Bearcats gave state-ranked Charleston all it wanted for three quarters but eventually fell 62-53 in a game that featured 11 lead changes, six ties and wasn't separated by more than nine points the whole way.
Dexter has now lost 12-straight to the Bluejays in season openers and Tuesday's close encounter felt like it could have been the one to break their dreaded streak.
"We're expecting to win every game right now," Dexter head coach Josh Dowdy said. "I tell the kids despite who we're facing we just have to get over that hump. We're coming close but just not cashing it in. To start the season with that kind of effort, we can build off that."
Charleston (2-1, 1-0 SEMO) beat back a Dexter squad poised for an upset. The Bluejays were down by as many as nine points in the first 3:34 thanks to some red hot shooting from Dexter and needed every bit of their late push to keep their series stranglehold intact.
Demarcus Sharp led Charleston with 22 points, nine rebounds, three steals and a block. Jeremy Tucker added 11 points and five rebounds for the Bluejays, who were looking to bounce back after suffering a one-point loss to the defending Class 4 state champs, Vashon, just three days ago.
"We turned the pressure up on them a little bit," Charleston head coach Danny Farmer said. "We didn't think they would keep shooting like that and we just wanted to keep the pressure on them at the end. We did it just enough to win the game."
Dexter (0-1, 0-1) played Charleston perfectly in the first half. Their methodical offense kept things at their preferred slow pace and limited the Bluejays' running opportunities.
They also hit their first five shots from the field leading to a quick 11-2 advantage.
"We ran our offense and dictated tempo," Dowdy said. "I thought we did a lot of good things to start the season."
Though Charleston answered right back with a 9-0 run to tie things up four minutes later, Dexter was settled in for the long haul.
Clay Mullins, who finished with 15 points and five rebounds for Dexter, ended the first quarter with a four-point play to give the Bearcats a 15-13 lead.
Five points was a much as the two were separated in the second quarter thanks to a 3-pointer from Seth Rogers to kick things off. From that point on, however, just one possession divided the two. Another Dexter three, this time from Ben Sindle who drained six for a team-high 18 points, gave the Bearcats a 31-30 lead at halftime.
Dexter shot 52 percent from the floor in the first half, which included 6 for 7 from three.
"They played it right," Farmer said about Dexter's first half success. "They played their game."
The game shifted to the Bluejays' liking in the second half.
Charleston forced Dexter into six third quarter turnovers to put them in the driver's seat if only by a slim margin. An old school 3-point play by Mardareyon Clark gave the Bluejays a 35-33 lead at the 5:16 mark and they didn't relinquish their newfound lead again.
"It just got a little quicker in the second half," Dowdy said. "They came and picked us up at full court a few times, doubled us up and we had some careless turnovers. When it's a five or six point game and you have that careless turnover, it can get to eight pretty quick. If we execute like we did that first half,you never know what would happen."
Big minutes from sophomore Terridean Bogan helped Charleston keep Dexter at bay in the early stages of the fourth quarter. The 5-9 sophomore scored all 10 of his points in the final frame, which included a three to give Charleston their biggest lead, 47-41, to that point at the 4:45 mark.
"That's what he's been doing in practice," Farmer said. "I expected that."
An offensive putback by Gabe Jackson pulled Dexter to within four just a minute later and Dawson Kasting made it a five-point game with a free throw inside the last three minutes. But Bogan struck again with a three to make it 56-48 with 2:15 to play.
Bogan added two free throws with 29 seconds left to make it 60-53 and put an end to any kind of Dexter rally.
"When [Bogan] came in and hit some shots that will break your back," said Dowdy. "That was the difference.
"We got a little excited," Dowdy added. "We went up 11-2 early and they're jumping around and it's good to see that. But we have to understand that we need to focus and do that for four quarters. Maybe we can do that the next time around when we see a good squad like this."
Charleston's night from the floor wasn't great, ending at a 42 percent clip (25 for 57), but relied on their defense to slow Dexter down when it needed the most.
"We're not going to shoot it great every night," Farmer said. "That's why you have to put the emphasis on stopping them and make them turn it over and that's why we won tonight."
Dexter's brutal stretch to the start the season continues on Friday when they host another state-ranked and SEMO Conference team, Sikeston, at the Bearcat Event Center in Dexter, Mo.
Charleston will be on the road at Notre Dame for another league game on Friday as well.