Dumas ready to make run
If Dumas wasn’t attempting to make a statement earlier this week when it faced a nearby rival, the rest of the state may have heard one anyway.
The Bobcats got their lick back from McGehee when they clawed their way to a 70-49 victory in a matchup between teams ranked among the top six in Class 3A.
“I’ve gotta be honest, we played really well,” said Dumas Coach Larry Harris, whose Bobcats are currently ranked No. 5 while McGehee is No. 4. “We shot it well, we defended well. Not to take anything away from McGehee, but we felt like we should’ve beaten them at their place the first time around.
“We were up 10 at half, but there were two major differences in that game. [McGehee] went 8 of 12 from the three, and then their five starters scored 12, 12, 11, 9 and 8 points. My five starters were 27, 9, 2, 0, 0. So we knew if we played like we were supposed to, that we were going to beat them in the next one.”
Dumas (23-4, 11-1 3A-8) didn’t just beat the Owls in the rematch, it blitzed them in the de facto conference title game. The Bobcats used a 19-5 run to take a 38-20 at halftime and rolled in the second half. It also helped Dumas’ cause when it got a quintessential performance from all-stater Tommy Reddick.
The 6-2 guard, who’s scored more than 1,000 points in his career, had 23 points in the game, but the senior has had to ease his way back into the fold after a pair of injuries previously hampered him.
“He missed the first nine games of the season because he was recovering from a minor meniscus surgery,” Harris said. “Once we got him back, we were getting ready to play DeWitt, and we had 10 minutes left in practice. He was going up for a layup, and one of our players accidentally hit him in the eye and cut his tear duct.
“He had to have emergency surgery the next day on his eye so that set him back. So he missed a few games because of it, and it’s really taken him some time to get back to form. But he had 19 against Camden [Harmony Grove] last week, and he was really electric against McGehee.”
While Reddick hasn’t been at full strength, Harris has counted on others to carry a sizeable load, starting with Raylen Spratt. The junior guard is averaging nearly 20 points per game, including 31 points against Lake Village two weeks ago. That total is an uptick from the 12 points he averaged a year ago before he brook his foot during the first round of a regional tournament.
Coincidently, Reddick missed a several games prior to that tournament because of a knee issue but returned for the same contest that Spratt suffered his injury. The Bobcats still managed to reach the state semifinals where they lost 56-47 to eventual champion Manila.
This season, Harris said he is hoping to have both on the court at the same time throughout the postseason in order for his team to make another run at a state championship. Those two, along with Billy Reddick and Joseph Jones, have been the offensive cogs, but Dumas has been putting in plenty of work on the defensive end as a unit as well.
The Bobcats have allowed 50 points or more just once since Dec. 16, and that occurred in their 52-51 loss at McGehee last month. Dumas’ other three losses came against Class 5A programs Mountain Home (47-43) and El Dorado (54-47) and Class 4A Watson Chapel (59-44).
“We’ve been battle-tested, that’s for sure,” Harris said. “These guys take pride in playing defense, too. But for us, getting Tommy back has been big. He looks like he’s clicking on all cylinders.
“We had a good talk, and I just told him that if we’re going to make a deep postseason run, he’s got to get back to himself. He’s got to be a leader, be aggressive and be a force. In these last two games, he’s shown that and looks like the Tommy Reddick of old.”