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Bloomfield boys fall in OT of Class 2 semifinal
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Nathan Newell thought it looked good. It felt good. It just didn't go in.
The Wildcats had the ball with the score tied and 52 seconds on the clock. They held for the final shot and got the ball to Noah Vandiver,but his jumper rimmed out and the refs called for a jump ball on the rebound with 0.1 seconds left.
Bloomfield inbounded the ball, but the clock started before anybody touched it, and referees had to call everybody back onto the court to try again.
This time, Newell got off a 3 from the nearby corner that was inches short and bounced off the front of the rim.
Overtime didn't start out well for the Wildcats and never got better. They got one field goal early off a 3 by Tim Hector but didn't score again until the final 34 seconds.
Fifth-ranked Iberia scored all 14 of its overtime points on free throws with both teams in the double bonus and the Rangers won 65-58 in overtime in the MSHSAA Class 2 semifinals at the Hearnes Center.
"That's the first time we've given up 60 in the whole year. Overtime game, semifinal, that's still pretty good," Bloomfield coach Jason Karnes said.
The first eight free throws in overtime were on fouls called on Bloomfield's end of the floor.
The Wildcats' aggression going after offensive rebounds and loose balls repeatedly cost them in overtime. There were 52 fouls called in the game, 32 against Bloomfield (28-4).
Iberia (28-4) sank 14 of 18 free throws in the extra period while the Wildcats were 3 of 10 from the field and didn't get to the line.
Bloomfield was 14 of 23 on free throws during regulation.
"A lot of ball pressure and they were physical. I think that's kind of a Southeast Missouri thing, which is fine," Iberia coach Steve Scholfield said. "They just wouldn't let us run our stuff and they made us use patience. We just weren't very good. We got enough done."
Bloomfield will face Wellington-Napoleon, which lost the other semifinal 63-33 to Hartville, at 4:15 p.m. Friday at Mizzou Arena. Hartville and Wellington-Napoleon are ranked first and second in the most recent coaches' poll.
If Bloomfield wins, it will match the 1964-65 team as the only teams to finish third. The 1965-66 team, which took fourth at state, is the only other Bloomfield boys basketball team to make it to the final four.
Bloomfield's physicality worked in its favor through much of regulation.
The Wildcats held Riley Halley, Iberia's leading scorer at 22.1 points per game, scoreless in the first half. Dexter Frisbie, Iberia's 6-foot-10 center whose getting close to 20 points a game, only played 18 minutes and fouled out with 4 minutes left in regulation.
"We needed to really pressure and guard the ball hard and that's kind of coming in, what we were after," Karnes said.
It actually took the Wildcats three tries on three straight possessions to pick up a fifth foul on Frisbie.
First, Vandiver drove and shot, missed, tumbled to the ground and there was no call. Iberia scored the other way on a fastbreak and after a quick inbounds, the Wildcats drove at him again and drew a foul. They thought it was against Frisbie, but the referees called the foul against Zachary Roark.
On the missed free throw, Vandiver got the offensive rebound and finally picked up a fifth foul against Frisbie, who finished with 18 points.
"It wasn't easy. Dexter don't make a very good assistant coach," Scholfield said. "For anybody that thinks we are Dexter Frisbee and a bunch of midgets, they're wrong. We have some players here."
The game was tightly called throughout and it started to bite the Wildcats in the second half. Karnes talked to his players on the drive up about adjusting to the whistles, but after the game, he said they didn't adjust as well as needed.
Iberia finished 31 for 47 on free throws while Bloomfield was 14 for 23.
"That's just part of it. That's part of basketball. You've got to adjust to the way it's called and I didn't think we did a very good job of that," Karnes said.
Added Scholfield, "The funny thing is, if we would have made our free throws in regulation, we wouldn't have needed those 14 free throws."
Vandiver went 5 for 5 from the field for the Wildcats in the first half, including a pair of 3s, and finished 10 for 17 for 27 points.
"My guys found me open quite a bit and it worked out for us," Vandiver said.
He scored once in the paint in the first half, but got four buckets in there in the second. He was Bloomfield's only player to score in double digits while Iberia had four.
Behind Frisbie, Lane Luttrell had four 3s, all from the left side of the floor, and finished with 15 points. Halley had 14 after being held scoreless in the first half and got a double-double with 16 rebounds. Roark added 12 points, helped along by eight free throws.
Vandiver left the game for a breather with 3 minutes left in the first half and the Wildcats up 23-15. At the time, he had 14 points already. The Rangers hit a quick 3 and Vandiver was right back in.
Luttrell hit a second 3 to cut the Wildcats lead to one possession.
"Coach just said we needed to find something to pick each other up and we hit some shots and we played D. That's just how we play," Luttrell said.
Halley got his first point of the game with a free throw a couple minutes into the second half.
Bloomfield was down five when Alex Gibbs got the ball inside and picked up a fourth foul against Frisbie, sending him to the bench with 14 points and nearly 13 minutes left in the game. Gibbs hit both free throws, cutting Iberia's then lead to three points, and then Vandiver drew a charge to steal a little more momentum.
Vandiver picked up his third foul going for the rebound and went to the bench with a minute left in the third.
He was back on the court to start the fourth, but without him on the floor, Iberia got a bucket in the paint and a corner 3 to go ahead by five just before the buzzer.
The Wildcats got the ball to open the fourth quarter, and lost it on a jump ball. Luttrell buried a 3 at the other end to put Iberia up by eight. Halley made it nine soon after with a free throw.
Bloomfield was able to get within five, but Frisbie got a three-point play that was Vandiver's fourth foul with more than 5 minutes left. He stayed in the game.
In the final 5 minutes, Vandiver and Frisbie were guarding each other, with both guys sitting on four fouls.
Once Frisbie fouled out, Vandiver was put on Halley in the post.
After some free-throw exchanges, Newell pulled Bloomfield within three points with a pair at the charity stripe.
With just under 2 minutes to go, Gibbs hit a jumper from the post to tie it up for the first time since 33-all. His jump shot in the final seconds eight days earlier beat Thayer 54-52, sending the Wildcats to the quarterfinal.
Iberia missed a 3 and a putback and got the ball back with 66 seconds left on a traveling violation by the Wildcats. Vandiver got a steal near the free-throw line and Karnes used a timeout to set up a final play.
The Wildcats, who had their 16-game win streak snapped, had allowed 44.1 points per game this season. The most points Bloomfield had allowed before Thursday was 58 in the finals of the SCAA Tournament.
| Bloomfield | 13 | 10 | 10 | 18 | 7 | -- | 58 |
| Iberia | 10 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 14 | -- | 65 |
BLOOMFIELD (28-4) -- Hector 2-6 (1-4) 1-2 6. Newell 3-5 (0-1) 2-4 8. Bond 2-6 0-0 4. Battles 0-5 (0-3) 4-4 4. Vandiver 10-17 (3-4) 4-5 27. Pulley 0-1 (0-1) 0-0 0. Bell 2-8 (0-2) 0-0 2. Phillips 0-0 0-0 0. Gibbs 1-3 (0-1) 3-8 5. Totals: 20-51 (4-16) 14-23 58.
IBERIA (28-4) -- Roark 2-5 8-17 12. Luttrell 4-11 (4-11) 3-4 15. Bloodgood 0-1 (0-1) 3-4 3. R.Halley 3-6 8-10 14. Frisbie 6-7 6-8 18. Mason 0. Murray 0. C.Halley 0-1 3-4 3. Totals: 15-32 (4-12) 31-47 65.
REBOUNDS: Bloomfield 28 (Vandiver 9. Newell 4. Hector 3.) Iberia 34 (R.Halley 16. Roark 6. Frisbie 5.) ASSISTS: Bloomfield 10 (Battles 3. Newell 2. Bond 2.) Iberia 10 (R.Halley 4. Roark 3. Bloodgood 2.) STEALS: Bloomfield 7 (Hector 2. Gibbs 2.) Iberia 6 (Roark 2. Luttrell 2.) BLOCKS: Bloomfield 1 (Bell.) Iberia 4 (Roark. R.Halley. Frisbie. C.Halley.) TURNOVERS: Bloomfield 15. Iberia 16. TOTAL FOULS: Bloomfield 32. Iberia 20 (Fouled out: Hector. Vandiver. Gibbs. Frisbie.)