Inside-outside combination leads Dexter past Pinckney
Dexter's Dave LaMore slams home two of his game-high 21 points during the second quarter of Wednesday night's district semifinal win over Pinckney. (Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com)
LaMore, a junior center, scored 21 points on 10-of-12 shooting in the Class A district semifinal win at Huron High School. Elslager, a senior guard, hit four of the Dreadnaughts' seven 3-pointers on his way to 19 points.
"When we're clicking well inside and outside, it's hard to stop us all," Elslager said. "We've got the fire going right now."
Dexter coach Randy Swoverland had some issue with the team's defensive performance in the second and third quarters -- when Pinckney scored 26 of its 42 points.
"I thought ... we gave up a lot more things in our man-to-man defense than we have all year long," Swoverland said. "But I knew it was going to be a tough two-day turnaround mentally, physically and emotionally."
The Dreadnaughts (14-8) were coming off an emotional opening-round win over Pioneer on Monday night. They'll play another Southeastern Conference foe, Huron, in Friday's 7 p.m. final.
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At the start of Wednesday's game, only one portion of the Dreadnaughts' inside-outside combination was working.
Dexter took a 12-8 lead after one quarter despite never finding its outside shot (1-for-6 from 3-point range). LaMore did most of the damage, scoring seven points -- including a pair of offensive putbacks.
The missing shooting touch was found in the second quarter. The Dreadnaughts went 3-for-4 from 3-point range, including two from Elslager who scored nine points in the quarter. Dexter led 28-17 at halftime.
"We had open looks in the first quarter, but didn't make any," Swoverland said. "I don't think the shots we made in the second quarter were any easier or harder, but that's how 3-point shooting goes."
Dexter's lead was around 10 points for most of the third quarter before they blew the blew the game open by outscoring the Pirates 22-8 in the fourth quarter.
LaMore won a good battle of big men against Pinckney 6-foot-6 senior center James Hughes, who matched Brad Hohman with a team-high 11 points.
Rich Rezler covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at 734-623-2553 or richrezler@annarbor.com.