Bloomfield, Missouri - The Wildcats ended the first half with a 3-pointer, but it wasn’t enough.  Kennett’s coach Jim Vaughan stated, “We wanted to speed the game up.  We don’t dare people to drive past us because that usually ends up being successful for them.”  He continued to say, “I did feel like we had a better effort defending the basketball and keeping it in front of us.  Bloomfield capitalized on our (breakdowns) at times and a good team can do that.”

The Indians led 25-15 after the first period before increasing their lead by 15 at the half.  Number nine seeded Bloomfield could not close the gap against top seeded Kennett and the Indians were able to maintain a double-digit lead throughout the second half.  Final Score was Kennett 87, Bloomfield 57.

Coach Karnes of Bloomfield stated, “We had some turnovers out there on the court, but Kennett is going to make you turn the ball over.”  He continued to say, “At times our offense was hanging in there, but we just didn’t shoot the ball well.  For us to be competitive we need to shoot well.”

Brett Ruch for the Wildcats had 13 of his 15 points in the first half.  Karnes said, “Brett has been very aggressive the last two games.  We need him to do that.  If he is aggressive like he has been he’s kind of tough to stay in front of and defend.”

Caleb Baker hit three of the Wildcats’ five 3-points and scored nine of his fifteen points in the second half.

There was a bit of a scare during the third quarter.  Divante Taylor was taken off the court by paramedics after hitting the floor hard after he jumped into the air for the ball.  The EMT’s handled him with the utmost caution by strapping him to a board.  He was then taken for x-rays.  The team huddled and the kids said a prayer for him.  Awesome group of students!  Everyone hopes the best for him in his recovery.

The Indians were just too strong for the Wildcats as they could not get close to the powerful offense of the Indians.  The closest they could get was 14 points.  Kennett is a tough team and they showed their drive to win.

Bloomfield will play for fifth place in the semifinals Saturday at 4 pm against Twin Rivers.  Kennett will play at 7 pm Monday night in the final showdown.

Bloomfield, Missouri – The Bernie Mules sealed a win against the Portageville Bulldogs 53-50 at the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament quarterfinals.  The Bulldogs made a last attempt to tie the game at the buzzer as the 3-pointer fell short of the basket.

B.J. Jennings was successful with four 3-pointers for Bernie in the first seven minutes of the game, giving the Mules a 20-6 lead.  However by the second quarter the Bulldogs began to build strength with a 10-1 run and by halftime only trailed by 3 points.

Portageville head coach Jason Irby said, “The first eight minutes ended up being decisive tonight, I really can’t explain why we fell flat.”

With only about two minutes left in the game, the Bulldogs tied the game 45-45 with a 3-pointer by A.V. Banks.  The Bulldogs missed a few key shots and the Mules were able to pull ahead.  With only 18 seconds remaining A.V. Banks made a great basket for the Bulldogs closing the gap within a score.

Then with just 7 seconds on the clock the Bulldogs made one last defensive move to force a turnover by the Mules.  The Bulldogs were unsuccessful.  “It looked good where I stood,” Irby said of the final 3 shot attempt, “It was straight on.  It just didn’t go down.”

The Bernie Mules were led by David Baker with 20 points on the night and Jennings finished with 15 points, of which were all 3-pointers.  The Portageville Bulldogs were lead by Dominique Walker who had a team high of 15 points.

Bernie advances to the semifinals, where they will play Holcomb on Saturday night at 8:30 pm

It’s been a tough start to the season for the Dexter Bearcat Basketball Team. Fans, coaches, and players knew they would be coming into a tough season, as the beginning of their schedule is always very competitive.

Dexter has taken the losses and got back on the court for practices, and shortly turned things around.

The annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament is something that players and fans look forward to each year. Although the regular season schedule was tough in the beginning, the Bearcats had hoped to show off their hard work throughout the tournament.

Unfortunately for the Bearcats, the Christmas Tournament came to an end rather quickly for the team who is experiencing quite the rebuilding year.

The first round of the Christmas Tournament, the Bearcats took on Twin Rivers. The Bearcats came out strong and ready to win, but Twin Rivers’ offense was too much for the Bearcats to stop. Twin Rivers had a lead over the Bearcats, but Dexter quickly turned things around in the beginning of the fourth quarter. The Bearcats were shooting well, but it was a little too late. Twin Rivers ended with a win of 62-56 over Dexter.

Although many fans and the players were upset to not be in the second round of the tournament, but yet playing in the consolation bracket, the team knew today they would need to step up their game and claim a victory over the Puxico Indians.

After seeing the Indians step it up yesterday and come close to beating South Pemiscot, the Bearcats knew it would be a good match up.

Puxico had a lead over Dexter throughout most of the game, but the Bearcats never let the lead get too out of hand. Dexter was struggling to come up with little shots under the goal throughout the first half of the game. At the beginning of the third quarter, things really turned around for the Bearcats, and the hope of the fans had returned.

Dexter played very hard the last two quarters with lots of aggression and a few players started feeling more confident in shooting the ball. Both Joyner and Miller for the Bearcats fouled out before the end of the game, but sophomore Austin Aldridge stepped up to fill their shoes.

At the very end of the 4^th quarter, the Bearcats were down by two points and had 1.6 seconds left to make their move. It was obvious that a shot needed to be taken in order to at least tie it up and roll over into overtime, but none of the Bearcat players could get in position for a shot.

Puxico ended up posting a 59-57 victory over the Bearcats.

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.