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BCT Game 4: Puxico upsets Hayti
BLOOMFIELD -- Earlier in the week and fresh off a home win over Naylor, Puxico coach Marc Crane was confident his team could make some noise in its first-round game against Hayti at the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament.
He was right.
The 13th-seeded Indians came back from a small halftime deficit to defeat fourth-seeded Hayti, 72-61.
"We've been getting better every day and every game," Crane said. "We've only had one bad game. We've been in every game and it all came together tonight."
Puxico (3-5) trailed for nearly the entire first half and into the third quarter.
The momentum swing for Puxico though occurred with 4:49 left in the third quarter as junior John Smith hit the front part of a 3-point play, but had to leave the game with a cut behind his right ear.
After a 2-point bucket by Hayti's Craig Rodgers, Puxico scored seven straight points with Smith, their leading scorer, in the locker room.
Travis Stuart hit a 3-pointer and Cody Russom sandwiched that shot with two 2-pointers during the run.
Soon after, Smith re-entered the game but Hayti went on a run of its own to close out the quarter. Keenan Williams hit two straight 2s and Darnell Clay and Demonta Abbott rounded out the quarter with a bucket apiece to give Hayti a 50-47 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Puxico pulled away in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Indians 25-12 to close out the game.
Crane was happy afterwards at how his team managed without Smith for a short while in the second half.
"How about how my guys did when John was out, they did what they needed to do," Crane said.
Whenever Puxico needed an offensive spark against Hayti, Russom was there.
"Cody got a little bit of an eye-opener," Crane said. "He got into trouble and didn't get to start but he came in and showed us that he's a team player. He played big, he played great defense. I don't care how many points he got--he was big defensively."
After going scoreless in limited time in the first quarter, Russom netted 10 in the second quarter, eight in the third and 11 in the fourth for a game-high 29 points. Smith added 24 points and Stuart hit three 3s and totaled 13 points.
Hayti was led by Williams with 18 and Denzel Presberry with 16 points.
| Puxico | 13 | 19 | 15 | 25 | -- | 72 |
| Hayti | 16 | 19 | 15 | 11 | -- | 61 |
PUXICO -- Wood 0 4-6 4. Guilliams 1 0-0 2. Russom 13(1) 2-3 29. Smith 9(1) 5-7 24. Stuart 5(3) 0-2 13. Gadberry 0 0-1 0. Phillips 0 0-0 0. Pollnow 0 0-0 0. Totals: 28(5) 11-19 72.
HAYTI -- Williams 8(2) 0-0 18. Abbott 2 1-3 5. Luster 1 0-7 2. Presberry 8 0-0 16. Norris 0 0-0 0. Rodgers 2 4-5 8. Clay 1 1-2 3. West 4 1-4 9. Totals: 26(2) 7-21 61.