Written  by
Dee Loflin, SMT Writer

Bloomfield, Missouri - The only upset so far in the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament was between #9 seeded Bloomfield Wildcats and #8 seeded Malden and it ended in overtime.

Bloomfield’s Brett Ruch drove to the basket in the final 5 seconds in overtime to make the game-winning lay-up and win 58-56 against Malden.  Jason Karnes said, “That’s kind of what we wanted to do.  We had a couple of shooters out there that were in the right spots at the right times.  We were just lucky enough to catch the ball and make the play.  It worked out well for us.”

It was a tuff match up, Malden did not score the final two minutes in overtime and Bloomfield was able to take advantage by scoring its overtime points in the final 46 seconds.  “Every defense we played tonight worked for us to some extent.  I thought defensively we did a fairly good job keeping them in front of us and contesting jump shots.” Stated Coach Karnes.

“Our guys just kept battling!”  Karnes continued.  “Those first three minutes of overtime were crazy!”  “We are going to play against a good team on Friday night.  Kennett is something real special for us and we are going to try as hard as we can to compete against them.  Should be an exciting match up.”

Bloomfield’s Caleb Baker led the team in scoring with 17 points followed by Austin Williams and Brett Ruch both with 10 points each.  Caleb Baker and Zac Good both made 3 pointers during the game.  Malden’s largest lead was six in the first quarter and Bloomfield’s largest lead was by seven in the third quarter.    

Bloomfield  11,  18,  13,  10   Overtime 6    Total 58

Malden       15,  13,  11,  13   Overtime 4     Total 56

Final Score Bloomfield 58 Malden 56 in overtime.