BCT Day 2: Bernie blows by Bloomfield

BLOOMFIELD -- The Bernie Mules used their defense to get themselves into the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament semifinals.

With an eight-point lead at the half, the Mules held the Bloomfield Wildcats to just one field goal in the first 5 minutes of the third quarter and opened the fourth on a 9-2 run in a 64-41 win Saturday night.

Quinton Stevens led the Mules with 14 points while Jake Welch and Jordan McGowan each had 12 points.

"We didn't feel like we had a real good defensive series at the end of the second quarter," Bernie coach Brad Botsch said. "In the second half, I thought we were a little sluggish to begin with but I thought we really came out and played better defense."

The Mules will now play Dexter, who beat Puxico in another quarterfinal Saturday at the 52nd annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament.

The Wildcats, who were led by Leighton Hensley and Seth Hill, who each scored eight points, couldn't ever get a key run to put themselves back in the game in the final 16 minutes.

"We were down eight (at half) and the boys seemed a little flustered and that is a tribute to Bernie's defense," Bloomfield coach Dustin Hicks said. "They have really improved in that area this season and we never could seem to get anything going offensively."

Already up 31-23, Quinton Stevens started the second half for the Mules with a drive to the hoop for a layup that put the Mules up 10. After a 3-pointer from Hill from the right corner went down, Bernie rattled off an 8-1 run to go ahead 39-27.

After two hoops from Welch, Jeremy Walker scored after an offensive rebound with 5:23 left in the third quarter.

"Rebounding is effort and sometimes being in the right place at the right time," Botsch said. "Those second chance opportunities are big at times in the game."

The Mules led by 11 after the third quarter but put the game nearly out of reach early in the fourth. Their 9-2 run was finished off by a putback by McGowan and an aggressive take to the hoop by Zach Curry that resulted in an old-fashioned 3-point play to put Bernie ahead 53-35 with 5:05 left.

While Bernie finished the game on a 9-3 spurt, the Wildcats struggled on the offensive end as they tallied just three field goals in the final 8 minutes.

"They have got some nice players and offensively there is times that they can really hurt you," Botsch said. "I thought at times we really guarded them well and we emphasize that. That is something we try to take a lot of pride in is our defense."

Bernie started the game with five straight points and took an 8-2 lead. Jake Owens hit a 3-pointer from the right wing at the 7:39 mark and later in the quarter, Jake Smith scored from the left block to force a Wildcats timeout.

The Mules limited the Wildcats early as well allowing just three buckets in the opening frame.

"I knew they struggled a little bit in the zone," Botsch said. "We gave them some different looks and it seemed to work to our advantage a little bit."

Bernie went into the half up single digits as Bloomfield closed the half on a 6-0 spurt. Other than that small run, Hicks wasn't too impressed with his team's play on the offensive end.

"We couldn't execute, we couldn't get into our offense," Hicks said. "It is hard to score when you can't get into anything."

Botsch wanted to make sure his players didn't overlook the Wildcats coming into the matchup.

"I stayed until the final buzzer (Friday) night just because I knew they were a quality team," Botsch said. "There is no way you can ever overlook anybody, especially on their home court. We spent a lot of time this morning preparing the kids, we prepared just like this was championship night."

Hicks hopes his team can rebound for the Monday game in the fifth-place semifinal.

"We will come here tomorrow and started getting prepared," Hicks said. "I try to remind the boys that the tournament is not over, we have still got hopefully two more games to be played."

BERNIE -- Welch 6 0-2 12. Stevens 4(2) 4-4 14. Owens 3(1) 2-2 9. Curry 2 2-3 6. Becking 0 1-2 1. McGowan 2 8-11 12. Walker 3 2-2 8. Totals 20(3) 19-26 64.

BLOOMFIELD -- McNeil 3 1-4 7. Harris 3(1) 0-0 7. Hensley 2 4-6 8. Hill 2(1) 3-5 8. Tilley 1 0-0 2. Caldwell 1 0-0 2. Conner 0 1-2 1. Smith 1 0-1 6. Totals 14(2) 2-11 41.