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BCT Game 3: Van Buren stuns No. 3 seed
BLOOMFIELD -- Van Buren will be wearing the glass slipper at the 52nd annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament.
The Bulldogs pulled off the biggest upset Friday in the first round when they knocked off third-seeded Kennett 55-47.
"I told them I hope this is not the only reason they came down was to win this one," Van Buren coach Wayne Jessen said.
The Bulldogs face Twin Rivers at 7 p.m. Saturday in a rematch of last year's consolation title game in which Van Buren won in overtime.
"When you seed a tournament this early, it's hard," Jessen said. "Seeds are kind of out of the window. We know Bernie is the dominate (No. 1 seed).
"We had to do things right in order for us to pull this off."
It didn't start that way for the Bulldogs (2-2) as Kennett jumped out to a 14-2 lead. Van Buren answered with a 14-3 run of its own to pull within one and briefly took the lead late in the first half.
Jessen called a pair of timeouts during Kennett's run, which consisted of 14 straight points and a 5 minute scoring drought by the Bulldogs, who hit just 2-of-12 shots from the field in the first quarter.
"We just stuck to our gameplan," Jessen said. "We knew they were going to come at us hard and fortunately, we were able to get some shots to start falling."
Kennett coach Jim Vaughan said in each of his team's three losses this season the Indians jumped out to an early lead only to have it slip away.
"I don't know if we start to panic or start to lose interest, but somehow they make a run back at us," Vaughan said.
Nathan Dazey scored 17 points to lead Van Buren, hitting a pair of second-half 3s and all seven of his free throws. Tyler Freeze scored eight points and Sledge Crawley added seven.
Kennett was led by Jarvis Finley's 21 points and led 27-24 at halftime.
The Indians couldn't shake Van Buren in the second half after going ahead midway through the third quarter. Daniel Newberry, who finished with five points, canned a 3-pointer to pull Van Buren to within 35-34.
Kennett led 41-39 heading into the final quarter but Cory Kennedy tied the game 50 seconds later. After the two teams traded missed shots twice, Finley hit a 3-pointer off a loose ball rebound for the lead with 5 minutes left. Dazey got an offensive rebound and hit a 3 to tie the game a minute later before the Indians turned the ball over leading to two free throws by Michael Duncan that gave the Bulldogs a 46-44 lead.
Duncan added two more free throws after a Kennett miss and Kyle Burke hit a 3-pointer for the Bulldogs with 2:17 remaining for a 51-46 lead.
Van Buren hit 3-of-6 free throws in the final minute, however, Kennett missed their final six shots from the field.
The Indians shot 29.2 percent from the field including 5-of-16 from 3-point range and missed 10 free throws.
"I'm having a hard time figuring that one out myself," Vaughan said of his team's shooting woes. "We're settling too much for our shots as opposed to attacking (the basket)."
Van Buren attacked the basket starting in the second quarter, getting to the free-throw line 29 times in all and hitting 17, while shooting 34 percent from the field and outrebounding the Indians.
"They killed us on the boards today," Vaughan said. "That's probably the defining stat."
| Van Buren | 8 | 16 | 15 | 16 | -- | 55 |
| Kennett | 14 | 13 | 14 | 6 | -- | 47 |
VAN BUREN -- Betz 0 2-4 2. Duncan 0 4-4 4. Newberry 2(1) 0-2 5. Dazey 4(2) 7-7 17. Freeze 3(2) 0-3 8. Burke 1(1) 2-4 5. Simmons 1 0-0 2. Crawley 3 1-3 7. Rector 2 1-2 5. Totals: 16(6) 17-29 55.
KENNETT -- Garmon 1 2-2 4. Finley 6(4) 5-7 21. Parr 1 1-2 3. Gooden 1 0-3 2. Abmeyer 1(1) 0-0 3. Hampton 0 3-4 3. Caruthers 0 1-2 1. Hughes 1 0-2 2. Conder 3 2-2 6. Totals: 14(5) 14-24 47.