Keirsten Keirsey doesn't normally start for Dexter, and she's never played the tall guard spot in the offense.
She did both Thursday, and did both well enough to earn the Player of the Game award as the Bearcats beat Earle (Ark.) 52-44 in the Border Challenge at Poplar Bluff.
"She was really the only one we had that was just really pursuing and being aggressive. I think it was well deserved," Dexter coach Chad Allen said. "She really stepped up her game and she is helping us out quite a bit this year."
Keirsey, who finished with 10 points, is typically a post player off the bench. She was thrust into the new role with leading scorer Chaylea Mosby out with a mild concussion she suffered during Wednesday's practice.
"Usually I'm a post, I play rover a lot," Keirsey said. "With Chaylea gone, I had to go and play tall guard, and I had never played it before so I was nervous. Everybody had to shift around and we had a little trouble at the beginning with letting (Roshala Scott) drive, but we overcame it and did a lot better."
Keirsey had one point in the first half and Dexter and Earle were tied heading into the locker room. Dexter (5-1) focused its adjustments on slowing down Scott, who scored 34 against Dexter in last year's Border Challenge and had 10 at halftime but eight in the second quarter Thursday.
"Last year she killed us," Allen said. "So we definitely did much better against her this year. We keyed in on her since she hurt us so much last year and I thought we did a great job for the most part in containing her, keeping her in front of us and making them shoot perimeter shots. I just thought that really made a difference in the game."
Keirsey opened the second half with a putback for her first field goal. She opened the fourth quarter with a 3 and her bucket with under 4 minutes left put the Bearcats ahead by 10 for the first time since the start of the second quarter.
Earle scored just four more points in the closing minutes, all off free throws.
"We were rebounding really good and we were really looking on the inside and getting a lot of shots off," Keirsey said.
Maycie Martin led Dexter in scoring with 17 points. Martin finished several fastbreaks and was 5 for 5 on free throws. Hannah Thurmon added 13 points. The 6-foot forward knocked down a pair of 3s and had seven of Dexter's first 12 points.
With Earle applying high pressure on defense, the Bearcats consistently found backdoor cuts for easy buckets.
"We knew coming into tonight's game that Earle was really going to get after us and pressure us," Allen said. "We are trying to run this offense where we can get some back-door cuts. At times I thought we looked good in it and at other times I thought it seemed like their pressure was really bothering us. I'm just proud of the girls for stepping up in the absence of Chaylea. That was huge for us to be able to come out here and get a good win against a great quality team."
The Dexter defense held Earle to two points for the first 6 minutes of play and opened with a 12-2 run.
Earle, though, got Scott going in the second quarter.
The quick point guard scored on three straight possessions and cut Dexter's lead down to a point with 4 minutes left in the first half. Earle never led, but Scott's jumper before the buzzer tied the game at halftime, and she tied it one final time at 26 early in the third quarter. She got six points the rest of the game and finished with 18 total, barely more than half of what she got last year.