It’s now or never for the Dexter girls’ basketball team. Well, it’s now or never for every high school basketball team as the state playoffs began on Monday with first-round games in the girls’ Districts tipping off all over the state.
Dexter has had a strong season with a few bumps in the road but all roads lead now to Skyline and the Dreadnaughts need to take that next step and find that other gear that takes them where they want to go – a District title.
One of those bumps came on Friday night in a disappointing 53-37 loss to Chelsea in a game the Dreadnaughts had circled on the schedule since losing to the Bulldogs back in February.
But Dexter regrouped enough to knock off a struggling Pinckney team 68-27 to open Districts on Monday at Skyline in a first-round game. The Dreadnaughts beat the Pirates rather easily all three times this season. Pinckney won just one game this season.
The Dreadnaughts (13-4) started strong, outscoring the Pirates 17-10 in the first quarter and then 19-6 in the second to take a commanding 36-16 lead at halftime. Dexter outscored Pinckney 19-6 in the third quarter.
Alayna Babut had a huge game for Dexter. The senior scored 11 of her game-high 20 points in the first quarter. Sydney Pnacek had 12 points and Shannon Schoch and Chloe Perry each scored 10 for the Dreadnaughts.
Now comes a big challenge for the Dreads – a semifinal matchup at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday against a very good Brighton team. The Bulldogs come into the game with a 13-3 record.
In the other bracket, South Lyon knocked out Skyline 41-33. They will play rival South Lyon East (11-6) in other semifinal game at 7 p.m.
The finals are at 7 p.m. on Friday. All games are at Skyline.
