Bloomfield, Missouri - The Bloomfield Wildcats grab their first round win Tuesday night in a triple overtime victory over the Puxico Indians.  The Wildcats won by a score of 72 to 66. 

A low scoring first quarter, Puxico stepped out to gain a slim margin of only 2-point over Bloomfield.  With a strong defensive performance by both teams, Puxico spread their 4 field goals over four members of their team.  The Wildcats Brett Ruch got started on his scoring spree by capturing 4 of his game total of 31-points. 

Puxico continued to maintain a slight lead of Bloomfield in the second period going in at halftime with a 21 to 14 score.  The Indians Zack Tucker had the hot hand scoring 6-points.  The Wildcats were only able to find eight points in the quarter.

 Ruch came out after halftime and dropped in 6-points for the Wildcats, outscoring Puxico by 1-point on the quarter.  With a 31 to 25 lead, it appeared that the number five seeded Indians were well positioned for an upset over the number four seeded Bloomfield Wildcats. 

But the Wildcats had other ideas for the outcome of this contest with strong performances by Brett Ruch, Caleb Baker and Zac Goode.  Ruch added 8-points, while Baker contributed 6-points and Goode kicked in a three-pointer to tie the game at 47 by the end of regulation.

The same trio for the Wildcats continued their dominant performance throughout all overtime periods with Bloomfield pulling away in the third overtime by 6-points to take the win.

"I'm really proud of our guys for battling a very good Puxico team tonight," noted head coach Jason Karnes.  "We never could get much going until the end, and we were fortunate we made a couple of shots to extend the game."

"We had some guys really step up in key situations, both offensively and defensively, to give us the opportunity to play in the semi-finals on Thursday," added Karnes. 

Bloomfield will take on the number one seed Bernie Mules in the final game on Thursday night.  Game time is 8:30 and will prove to be a great contest.