Bell City, Missouri – The Bernie Mules are having a great start to the 2014 season winning six games thus far and only dropping one game.  They traveled to Bell City Friday evening and defeated the Cubs 65 – 62.

“We really didn’t deserve to win tonight,” stated Bernie boys basketball coach Brad Botsch.  “Bell City vastly outplayed and outhustled us.  They lit up us time after time from outside and we continually failed to get out and guard them.”

Caleb Ellenburg tallied a game-high 40 points for the Mules.  Brandon Sparks recorded 10 points.  Matt Vernon added 8 points.

Cole Nichols recorded a game-high six 3-pointers for Bell City and finished with 27 points.  Bobby Wright tallied 12 points all treys.  Kolten Siebert added 10 points including two 3-pointers and Nate Finney finished with 9 points including one trey. 

Bernie jumped out to a 17-7 lead over Bell City in the first period and scored double digits in all four periods.  Bell City outscored Bernie in the second period, but it was not enough to take the lead.  They matched each other in the 3^rd and 4^th periods with 15 and 18 points respectively.

“I really saw this coming and tried to convey that to our kids, but we didn’t get up for this game like we should have and narrowly escaped with a win.  We have to earn every victory and not feel entitled to get it,” continued Botsch.  “Bell City really brought it tonight and you have to give the a lot of credit for pushing us to the brink of a loss.  We have a lot of improvements to make and it all starts with our attitudes and being 100% coachable.”

Fourth seeded Bernie will travel to Bloomfield to participate in the 58^th Annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament on Friday.  They take on the East Prairie Eagles at 2:00 p.m.

In JV action the Mules earned a forfeit win playing only two quarters due to not enough athletes for Bell City.  The JV Mules have a record of 5-1.

Final Score Bernie 65, Bell City 62

Bernie   17  15  15   18  -  65

Bell City  7   22  15   18  -  62

Bernie (65) – Matt Vernon 8, Blake Gilmore 1, Brandon Sparks10, Caleb Ellenburg 40, Devin Trammell 2, Gavin Smith 4.  FG 21, FT 22/38, F 20.  (3pointers: Sparks 1.  Fouled Out: None).

Bell City (62) – Nate Finney 9, Brandon Abner 2, Kolten Siebert 10, Cole Nichols 27, Jesse Smith 2, Bobby Wright 12.  FG 23, FT 3/7, F 27.  (3-pointers: Nichols 6, Wright 4, Siebert 2, Finney 1.  Fouled Out: Finney, Smith.)

Caleb Ellenburg is shown in the photo taken by Sierra Noel Waller. 

Bernie, Missouri - It's always exciting to see middle school athletes rise to the occasion and play high school sports.  Eleven freshman make up the JV team for Bernie.

The Mules have announced the 2014 - 2015 JV Roster and Schedule.

The Junior Varsity team freshman athletes are Ridge Littleton #10, Weston Comstock #12, Nate Dillinger #14, Alan Pippins #15, Gavin Brown #22, Dalton Hobgood #24, and Anthony Cook #52.

The sophomore Junior Varsity athletes are Alex Guzman #3, Drew Murphy #5, Riley Wells #40, and Usvaldo Anastacio #45.

Head coach is Brad Botsch and Assistant Coach is Jason Long.

Bernie will host their annual JV Tournament beginning December 8th - 13th.  They will also compete in the Malden JV Tournament on January 12th - 17th and the SCAA Tournament January 26th - 30th.

They host South Iron on Tuesday, December 9th at 5:00 p.m.

Below is the 2014 - 2015 Bernie Mules Schedule:

12/9/2014	5:00 PM		South Iron
12/12/2014	6:00 PM		at Gideon
12/16/2014	6:00 PM		at Woodland
1/6/2015	6:00 PM		at Oran
1/9/2015	6:00 PM		at Advance
1/16/2015	6:00 PM		Dexter
1/19/2015	6:00 PM		Holcomb
1/20/2015	6:00 PM		Bloomfield
1/23/2015	6:00 PM		at Puxico
2/3/2015	6:00 PM		Twin Rivers
2/6/2015	6:00 PM		Notre Dame (Cape Girardeau)
2/10/2015	6:00 PM		at Hayti
2/13/2015	6:00 PM		Malden
2/17/2015	6:00 PM		at Richland (Essex)
2/20/2015	6:00 PM		at Sikeston

 

12/8th, 10th, and 13th		Bernie JV tournament	Bernie, MO	Junior Varsity
1/12-17		Malden JV tournament	Malden, MO	Junior Varsity
1/26-30		SCAA Tournament	Bloomfield, MO	Junior Varsity

 

Bernie, Missouri - Last year the Mules saw seven seniors graduate.  They experienced a great season finishing 23-6.  They won the SCAA Tournament in Dexter, the Holcomb Invitational Tournament and finished second in the 16-team Bloomfield Christmas Tournament.

The Mules earned a #1 seed in the Holcomb Invitational this year which begins on Monday, December 1st taking on the #8 seeded Risco at 6 p.m. in Holcomb.

The Mules will return 7 seniors and 3 juniors to the varsity squad this year giving them some advantage over other teams who do not have so many experienced athletes playing.  They will also have some new opponents this year in the Class 2 District.  Chaffee has been added to the district along with Scott County Central.  Other participants in Class 2 District 1 are Bloomfield, Campbell, Holcomb, Cooter, and South Pemiscot.  Portageville, Senath-Hornersville, and Hayti will no longer participate in the district, all moving to Class 3.

Seniors are Matt Vernon, Login Wood, Brandon Sparks, Caleb Ellenburg, Devin Trammell, Gavin Smith, and Blake Gilmore.

Juniors are Alex Whitehead, Haydn Owens, and Trey Kirkpatrick.

Varsity teams consists of Blake Gilmore #2, Matt Vernon #3, Login Wood #4, Brandon Sparks #10, Caleb Ellenburg #11, Alex Whitehead #20, Haydn Owens #23, Devin Trammell #24, Gavin Smith #35, and Trey Kirkpatrick #40.

Below is the 2014 - 2015 Varsity Schedule.  Head Basketball Coach is Brad Botsch and Assistance Coach is Jason Long.

Fisk, Missouri – The Bernie junior high Mules grabbed a couple of championships at the Fisk tournament last week.  The #2 seeded 7^th grade boys basketball team upset the #1 seed Neelyville 27-27 in overtime, while the 8th grade team defeated Qulin 42-37.

Blake Harty hit a 3-pointer to tie the game against Neelyville with 31 seconds in the game before going into overtime.

Harty recorded a game-high 14 points including one 3-pointer for the Mules.  Kade Burk added 7 points and Trey Jackson scored a trey.

Final Score 7^th Grade Boys: Bernie 27, Neelyville 26 (OT) 

Neelyville  8  6    4   5   3  -  26

Bernie       4  5  11   3   4  -  27

Neelyville (26) - Austin Cassinger 1, Jacob Abner 2, C. Emmons 2, N. Burton 6, Curtis Fowler 4, Koby Hayes 11. FG 9, FT 8/19, F 17. (3-pointers: none.)

Bernie (27) - Blake Harty 14, Razer 2, Brayln Jankowski 1, Trey Jackson 3, Kade Burk 7. FG 10, FT 5/9, F 18. (3-pointers: Jackson 1, Harty 1)  

In the 8^th grade contest, the Mules defeated the #3 seeded Qulin 42-37.

Weston Zoll recorded a team-high 18 points for the Mules.  All of his points were 3-pointers!  Josh Ellenburg recorded 13 points.  Trenton Johnson added 6 and Jeffery Brown tallied 4 more.

Final Score 8^th Grade Boys:  Bernie 42, Qulin 37

Qulin   11   10    5    1  -  37

Bernie 10     2  14  16  -  42

Qulin (37) - Josiah Suiter 3, Hayden Thomas 20, Brady Leutert 5, Aaron Mittelstadt 5, Allen Hendrix 4. FG 14, FT 4/8, F 16. (3-pointers: Suiter 1, Thomas 2, Leutert 1, Mittelstadt 1. Fouled out: none)

Bernie (42) - Weston Zoll 18, Hunter Slavings 1, Trenton Johnson 6, Jeffery Brown 4, Josh Ellenburg 13. FG 14, FT 8/14, F 11. (3-pointers: Zoll 6. Fouled out: none)

Bernie will be back in action when the 8^th grade Mules play Woodland at 7:45 p.m. at the Bearcat Event Center on Monday, November 17^th.  The 7^th Mules will play Advance at 5:15 p.m. on Monday in the SCAA Basketball Tournament.