It's Christmas time... ... and that means it's tournament time

It wouldn't be Christmas in Southeast Missouri without the holiday basketball tournaments and this season will be no different.

Area teams will take part in numerous tournaments, with Dexter and four other Stoddard County schools dotting the bracket at the 52nd Annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament. Along with the host Wildcats and Dexter will be Bernie, Puxico and Richland at the Bloomfield event. The other three SCAA schools will be taking part in the SEMissourian event in Cape Girardeau.

Dexter's Lady Bearcats will be in action starting Saturday, Dec. 27th at the 12th Annual Lady Royals Holiday Classic Tournament in Broseley. The Lady 'Cats will enter as the No. 1 seed and will be going for a third-straight tournament championship.

At Bloomfield where the seeding took place two weeks prior to the tournament, Bernie has been tabbed the top seed by the coaches of the 16 teams in the field. Bernie was the No. 2 seed last year, but was knocked from contention in an upset by Malden, 73-70, in the second round. The Mules enter with a 5-1 record this season.

Dexter was picked as the five seed despite no wins when the seed meeting was held. The Bearcats earned their first win of the season Tuesday on the road at Caruthersville and will enter play with a 1-5 record.

Bernie will take on No. 16 East Carter County in the tournament's opening game Friday (Dec. 26th) at 10 a. m., while the Bearcats will see action against No. 12 East Prairie at 3:30.

Other first-round games will have No. 2 Portageville vs. No. 15 Greenville (11:15 a. m.), No. 3 Kennett vs. No. 14 Van Buren (12:30 p. m.), No. 4 Hayti, the tournament's defending championships, vs. No. 13 Puxico (1:45 p. m.), Dexter-East Prairie (3:30 p. m.), No. 6 Twin Rivers vs. No. 11 Malden (5 p. m.), No. 7 Doniphan vs. No. 10 Richland (6:30 p. m.), while host and No. 8 seed Bloomfield will take on No. 9 South Pemiscot in the night caper at 8 o'clock.

Dexter's Lady Bearcats enter the Twin Rivers event undefeated with an 8-0 record. The two-time defending champs will open play at 9 a. m. Saturday against No. 16 East Carter. Other first-round games will feature Doniphan vs. Kennett at 10:30 a. m., Naylor vs. Senath-Hornersville at noon, Neelyville vs. Clearwater at 1:30 p. m., Kelly vs. Malden at 3 p. m., Charleston vs. New Madrid County Central at 4:40 p. m., Greenville vs. Twin Rivers at 6 p. m., Portageville vs. Sikeston at 7:30.

Basketball fans can keep tabs on the tournaments in the sports pages of the Daily Stateman or view an updated bracket at the newspaper's web site, www.dailystatesman.com.