Portageville, Twin Rivers survive second-round scares at Bloomfield

BLOOMFIELD - The 46th Annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament resumed on Friday at Bloomfield High School.

The semifinals were set as top-seeded Twin Rivers survived a scare from upset-minded No. 8 Hayti, defeating the Indians 50-46.

Fourth-seeded Portageville also held off a late rally by No. 5 East Carter County to win 67-61.

In the other half of the bracket, No. 2 Dexter routed No. 7 Bloomfield 104-53.

The Bearcats played on Saturday against No. 6 Doniphan, which pulled off a mild upset with a come-from-behind 77-74 win against No. 3 Kennett.

Also, No. 15 East Prairie won its first game in the tournament in several years with a 73-62 win against tenth-seeded South Pemiscot.

Other games that were played in the consolation bracket were No. 9 Malden over No. 16 Richland 58-36; No. 13 Puxico over No. 12 Van Buren 63-52; and No. 11 Bernie over No. 14 Greenville 55-49.

Results from Day 3 of the Bloomfield Tournament will be in Monday's paper.

The Royals opened up a 35-21 lead at the half, but the Indians, behind the strong play of Dallas Winda and William Moore, rallied to trim the lead to 44-34 by the end of the third quarter. The two combined for 12 of the team's 13 points in the period.

The Indians made it close in the fourth quarter but couldn't pull out the upset.

Hayti was led by Winda's 13 points and Pete Peterson's 13 points. Moore added eight points.

Twin Rivers played Portageville in the semifinals on Saturday while Hayti squared off with East Carter County.

Portageville, which out-scored the Redbirds 16-3 in the second quarter to open up a 35-21 halftime lead, was able to hold off a furious rally by East Carter in the fourth quarter.

The Bulldogs led 52-39 entering the fourth quarter and they led 56-43 with five minutes left in the game. But in a matter of a couple minutes, East Carter had trimmed the lead to 56-52 with 3:40 left in the game.

"We weren't on the same page," said Portageville head coach Jim Bidewell. "They put a little press out there that kind of distracted us and we couldn't really get in our offense. We got to standing around a little too much."

But the Redbirds wouldn't get any closer.

Portageville made 7-of-9 free throws down the stretch to ice the victory.

Aaron Bidewell, son of Coach Bidewell, led all scorers with 25 points.

It was a much better performance after a sub-par showing in the tournament opener in which he scored seven points, including a 3-for-9 effort from the free throw line.

"He was pretty embarrassed by himself from the first ballgame," said Coach Bidewell. "I just told him it's just a game and don't get out there and feel like you have to play good. Just stay out there, have fun and let the game come to you. I think he did a much better job tonight."

Sophomore point guard Willie Hassell followed up with 13 points.

Trevor Douglas and David Reynolds led East Carter with 23 and 21 points respectively.

The Bearcats made it 32 in a row on the Bloomfield court with a dominating 104-53 win against the host school.

It's the second game in a row in which Dexter scored more than 100 points in the tournament.

Dexter raced out to a 26-7 lead after one quarter and extended it to 46-27 at the half.

Things got even uglier for Bloomfield in the second half as the Bearcats out-scored them 58-26.

Although the final score didn't show, Dexter head coach Eric Sitze came away impressed with Bloomfield, also his alma mater.

"Bloomfield played really hard -- they gave it all they had," said Sitze. "It's a credit to Coach (Travis) Brown with what he does to that bunch. He gets the most out of his team."

Dexter was led by Preston Clark and Aaron Guethle with 17 points each. Eight other players scored with four reaching double figures.

Bloomfield was led by Tim Perry with 23 points.

Dexter played Doniphan in the semifinals on Saturday. Bloomfield played Kennett.

Kennett appeared to be ready to run the Dons out of the gym in the early going.

The Indians led 23-13 after one quarter and 41-27 entering halftime.

But Doniphan, which out-scored Bernie 46-34 in the second half on Thursday, used another big second half to defeat the Indians.

The Dons cut the lead to 59-54 heading into the fourth quarter. They completed the comeback in the fourth quarter as Danny Kellas and Shayne Talburt combined for 17 of the team's 23 points.

Desperation 3-point attempts by Tyree Goolsby and Brian Mitchell were off the mark as time expired.

Doniphan out-scored the Indians 50-33 in the second half.

Kellas had 22 points while Talburt added 21 for the Dons.

Goolsby's 36-point performance, along with five 3-pointers, was spoiled. Cody Robinson added 14 points for the Indians.

Malden 58, Richland 36

The Green Wave jumped out to a 17-2 first quarter lead and never looked back to eliminate the Rebels from the tournament.

They led 32-13 at the half and 45-23 at the end of three quarters.

Richard Marks led all scorers with 21 points. Colen Robinson and Jamall Kilgore added 12 and 10 respectively.

Richland was led by Tim Griggeory's eight points.

Malden played Puxico in the consolation semifinals on Saturday.

Puxico used a big second quarter to pull away from the Bulldogs.

The Indians, after being tied 14-14 after the first quarter, out-scored Van Buren 21-12 to lead 35-26 at the half.

Van Buren never recovered.

Puxico was led by Matt Fox with 17 points and Tyler Ramsey with 15 points.

Van Buren was led by Jeff Berry and Daniel Hoskins with 12 points each.

East Prairie overcame a 33-31 halftime deficit to pull out the win, eliminating South Pemiscot from the tournament.

The Eagles out-scored the Bulldogs 42-29 in the second half.

East Prairie made 22-of-27 from the free throw line and buried seven 3-pointers.

Matt Boyer, who hit five 3-pointers, led all scorers with 32 points.

Herman Rogers led the Bulldogs with 23 points.

East Prairie played Bernie in the consolation semifinals on Saturday.

The Mules, playing without the injured Darius Wooldridge, overcame a 38-38 game at the end of three quarters to pull out the win.

Bernie got 36 points out of sophomore Zach Dill. Greenville, now eliminated from the tournament, was led by Jason West's 21 points.