Van Buren takes home Yellow Sucker trophy

ELLSINORE — Over the last several years, the annual battle of Carter County between the Van Buren Bulldogs and the East Carter Redbirds — also known as the Yellow Sucker game — has become one of Southeast Missouri's premier rivalry basketball games.

And the latest edition of the Yellow Sucker game on Thursday night was no exception, as the Bulldogs pulled out a thrilling 61-58 win over the Redbirds at East Carter High School. The game originally was slated for Friday, but was moved up because of the impending snowstorm.

In the girls contest played earlier on Thursday, East Carter won 69-46.

The Redbirds led 57-56 with just over a minute to go, but Elijah Van Wagner's putback with 1:01 remaining gave Van Buren a 58-57 lead.

Carter Freeze hit a pair of free throws with 11.8 seconds left to extend the Bulldogs lead to 60-57, but Cordell Duckett sank a free throw with 5.9 seconds left to cut the lead back to two points (60-58).

Hayes Townsley was fouled and sank a free throw with 2.7 seconds left to make it 61-58, leaving East Carter with a chance at a desperation game-tying 3-pointer just missed at the buzzer.

Van Buren jumped out to a 21-13 lead in the opening period and pushed it to 25-15 by the end of the quarter, but the Redbirds began to chip away in the second and cut the Bulldogs' lead to 38-32 by the intermission.

Freeze hit a pair of free throws just 37 seconds into the second half to make it 40-32 in favor of the Bulldogs, but East Carter responded with a 6-0 run to cut the Van Buren lead to two points (40-38) on Chase Kearbey's trey with 6:07 left in the third quarter.

East Carter's Chase Bradshaw hit a triple with 4:50 left in the third to tie the score at 41, then Duckett converted a three-point play with less than a minute left in the period to put the Redbirds ahead 49-48. Cason Price's layup put East Carter ahead 51-48 with 20 seconds left in the third quarter, setting the table for the exciting finish.

The Redbirds will play Wednesday at Lesterville, while Van Buren is slated to take on Summersville on Saturday, weather permitting.

Bernie 72, Advance 41

At Advance, the visiting Mules started strong as they spoiled the Hornets' homecoming in another game which was played a night early to get ahead of the snowstorm.

Bernie led 21-8 after the opening period and pushed its lead to 40-21 by halftime. The Mules led 52-36 going to the fourth quarter.

Cane Hobgood paced Bernie with 24 points, while Jon Aycock added 20, Blayne Morgan had 11 and Hunter Massey finished with 10.

Brodie Rodgers led Advance with 15 points, while Hunter Rodgers had 10.