BCT Game 8: Host advances to quarterfinal

BLOOMFIELD -- You never know what you're gonna get out of a 8/9 matchup in a 16-team tournament.

Friday night's battle between No. 8-seed Bloomfield and No. 9-seed South Pemiscot was a close battle early on, but Bloomfield's steady offense in the third quarter gave the Wildcat's the cushion needed to pull off a 78-71 victory at the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament.

"With it being an 8/9 game, we knew it would be evenly-matched," Bloomfield coach Dustin Hicks said. "The boys did a great job getting runs and we kind of withstood their runs. I thought for the most part it was a night we played four quarters and we hadn't done that in awhile."

Bloomfield (5-3) got out to an early 8-2 lead due in large part to junior Leighton Hensley, who scored six of those eight points.

South Pemsicot junior Tyler Thompson then exploded for a personal 9-0 run and finished the quarter with 12 of his team's 16 points including two 3-pointers.

In the second quarter, Bloomfield stayed close thanks to two 3-pointers -- one by Seth Hll and another by Blake Harris ∂-- that gave the Wildcats a 23-22 lead. The Bulldogs would respond with three straight buckets by Bruce Smith, Thompson and Caleb McIntyre to retake a three-point lead.

Bloomfield took it to the free-throw line to close out the half as they shot 6-for-9 as a team and held South Pemiscot to just four points the last 4:19.

The Wildcats came out charged up in the second half both defensively and offensively.

After Thompson scored 14 points in the first half for South Pemiscot, the Wildcats held him to just six points and one field goal in the second half.

"He got a lot of layups off of some of our turnovers," Hicks said of Thompson. "We did make some adjustments and we keyed in on him more in the second half. We made sure we were aware of where he was at."

The Wildcats pulled away for good midway through the third quarter with a 12-0 run that extended their lead to 50-36. Corey Smith was a big factor in the run as he scored six points and went 4-for-4 from the line.

Hensley carried the Wildcats in the fourth quarter. The junior scored 10 straight Bloomfield points, ending the half with 14 points and 23 total on the night.

Blake Harris added 15 points while Derrick Caldwell chipped in with 12.

South Pemiscot was led by Thompson with 22 and Jordan Carter who scored 16 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter including two 3-pointers.

Bloomfield now will look forward to playing spoiler as they take on conference rival and top-seeded Bernie Saturday.

"They beat us three times last year," Hicks said. "All of them were close games, it would be nice to come back and get one of these. Bernie is solid team, they're a big team and they do a lot of things well."

SOUTH PEMISCOT -- McIntyre 3 0-0 6. Carter 10(2) 0-0 22. Thompson 7(2) 4-4 20. Taylor 0 0-0 0. Hollywood 4 1-4 9. Lincks 1 2-2 4. Smith 3 2-2 8. Booker 1 0-0 2. Totals: 29(4) 9-12 71.

BLOOMFIELD (5-3) -- McNeil 1 2-5 4. Harris 5(2) 3-4 15. Hensley 9 5-9 23. Hill 3(1) 2-4 9. Caldwell 3 6-7 12. Conner 1(1) 0-0 3. Smith 4 2-2 10. Redcloud 1 0-0 2. Totals: 27(4) 20-31 78.