BCT: Bernie gets defensive early, holds off rallying 'Dogs

A whole host of Portageville (blue) and Bernie (white) players battle for a rebound during the opening round of the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament on Thursday.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

BLOOMFIELD – Bernie High School varsity boy’s basketball coach Jason Long has been on the sidelines long enough to discern a solid level of defense being played, and he is seeing the foundations of such this season from his team.

“We’ve been playing pretty good defense,” Long said recently following a win at Bell City. “We’ve been defensive rebounding pretty well.”

The Mules did those things very well throughout the opening 16 minutes of their game against Portageville on Thursday, as Bernie held off the Bulldogs for a 58-47 victory in the opening round of the 68th annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament.

“In the first half,” Long said following his team’s latest win, “honestly, we worked hard enough not to give up open shots.”

Bernie (4-2) jumped out to a 25-15 halftime advantage, which was a good thing, because Portageville made a second half run to put the outcome in doubt.

“I think that our strength is that we are fairly well rounded,” Portageville coach TJ Smith said. “Our biggest weakness is that we are not very consistent at times.”

That was evident against the Mules. After falling behind by double digits in the opening half, the Bulldogs (3-5) pulled to within four points in the second half before running out of steam late.

“We can really attack the rim at times,” Smith said. “We can shoot it at times. We guard really well at times, but not for 32 minutes.”

In the third quarter, Portageville sank four 3-pointers, including three by senior guard Xay Bogan, while scoring on drives and at the free-throw line.

“One thing that is troubling right now is,” Long explained, “as the game goes on, our (defensive) effort seems to wane a little bit.”

Portageville put up 22 points in the third quarter before being held to just 10 points over the final eight minutes.

In the final quarter, the Mules sank seven of eight free throws, which was indicative of how they shot from the charity stripe all game.

Bernie connected on 11 of its 14 free throws in the win.

“We answered,” Long said of responding to the Bulldogs’ charge, “for being as young as we are, and we made some free throws down the stretch.”

Bernie was paced offensively by sophomore center Jon Aycock, who scored a team-leading 20 points, including 12 after halftime.

Mule sophomore guard Blayne Morgan added 15 points while senior Cade Arnold added 12.

Bogan was the lone Bulldog in double figures with 21 points, as he sank four 3-pointers, while junior Antonio Hickenbottom chipped in seven points, and sophomore Jack Bell had six.

No. 4-seed Bernie will face No. 5-seed Kennett (4-5) on Friday at 5:30 p.m. The Indians got past East Carter 60-44 on Thursday.

No. 13-seed Portageville will play the Redbirds on Friday at 10 a.m.