Bloomfield, Missouri - The 58th Annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament will be a rematch between the Bernie Mules and the Kennett Indians. The Indians came out on top last year and have won four of the last five Bloomfield Christmas Tournaments. Holcomb defeated Kennett in 2012.
The #4 seeded Mules defeated the #1 seed Hayti in semifinal action on Monday 45-38 in overtime. Bernie and Hayti entered overtime tied at 36 all.
“I am really proud of our kids tonight,” Stated Bernie head basketball coach Brad Botsch. “We didn’t play real clean tonight though. Hayti probably didn’t’ feel like they did either, but I am real proud of our kids for getting another gutsy win. We knew at the beginning of the year we were going to have a lot of games like this and they would come down to the wire. I am just proud of them for finding a way to get it done!”
Brandon Burden tallied a team-high 12 points for the Kennett Indians. Idaqual Presberry scored 10 points and Devan Riddick hit three 3-pointers adding 11 points to the board. Will Smith hit one trey.
Caleb Ellenburg scored a game-high 25 points for the Mules including one trey. Matt Vernon finished with 8 points and one trey. Brandon Sparks recorded 7 points including a 3-pointer and Devin Trammell scored 5 points including a trey.
Bernie finished the first period with a one point lead over Hayti and only increased the gap by four at the half.
Hayti’s defense all but shut down the Mules’ scoring in the 3rd quarter holding them to just 3 points. It was really in overtime that the Mules came alive and prevented the Indians from scoring.
“We have got to have better third quarters,” continued Botsch. “We played timid out of halftime and I don’t know why. It was like we were scared to miss a shot.”
“They had run a couple of sets that they had gotten some looks out of,” Botsch said of Hayti’s inability to score in the last two minutes of overtime. “We kind of told the kids what we thought they were going to do and took it away.”
Final score #4 Bernie 45, #1 Hayti 38 (OVERTIME)
Bernie 12 11 3 10 (9) - 45
Hayti 11 8 11 6 (2) - 38
Bernie (45) – Matt Vernon 8, Brandon Sparks 7, Caleb Ellenburg 25, Devin Trammell 5. FG 16, FT 9/11, F 7. (3-pointers: Vernon 1, Sparks 1, Ellenburg 1, Trammell 1. Fouled Out: None).
Hayti (38) – Devan Riddick 11, Will Smith 5, Indaqual Presberry 10, Brandon Burden 12. FG 16, FT 2/5, F 12. (3-pointers: Riddick 3, Smith 1. Fouled Out: Farr).
Bernie last won the title at the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament in 2008.
“Anytime you get a chance to play for the championship it is special, especially up here,” stated Botsch. “This is the fourth one we have played in since Coach Long and I have been here. We have won one and lost two and I told the guys ‘we would sure like to be .500 after this next one.’ We are going to come out and give it all we have. We are going to face a good team and hopefully we will be ready to go Tuesday night.”
Tonight's championship game begins at 8:30 p.m. in Bloomfield!
