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South Pemiscot upsets Portageville
Top seeds Malden, Doniphan roll to semifinals in Bloomfield Christmas Tournament
BLOOMFIELD - The 50th Annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament heated up on Wednesday in the second day of action.
In the winner's bracket, No. 1 seed Malden defeated Dexter 75-45; No. 2 seed Doniphan dispatched No. 7 Bernie 60-43 and No. 4 seed Puxico got past No. 12 seed Van Buren 73-57.
South Pemiscot recorded the lone upset in the winner's side of the bracket as the No. 6 seed, with a 63-52 win over No. 3 seed Portageville.
On the loser's side of the bracket, Richland defeated Hayti 59-46; East Prairie got past Twin Rivers 56-54; Kennett nipped Bloomfield 71-68 and East Carter County downed Greenville 64-63.
The semifinals will begin on Thursday with Malden facing Puxico at 7 p.m. followed by Doniphan and South Pemiscot at 8:30 p.m.
Portageville will play Bernie in one fifth place bracket game at 5:30 p.m. and Dexter will battle Van Buren at 4 p.m. in the other matchup.
For consolation, Richland and East Prairie will play at 1 p.m. followed by Kennett and East Carter County at 2:30 p.m.
The Portageville Bulldogs committed 30 turnovers against the South Pemiscot Bulldogs and fell in the second round, 63-52.
Both teams came out flat to start the contest. With two minutes remaining in the first quarter, South Pemiscot led 6-3 and all six points were from the free throw line. In addition, both clubs had committed a combined total of 14 turnovers.
"It was tough for both teams to get into a good offensive flow in the first quarter," said South Pemiscot's Chris Moore. "It took us a while to get in a rhythm. Everybody knows Portageville's reputation and they did a good job of competing tonight and making it tough on the offensive end."
South Pemiscot sprinted out to a 21-12 lead with 1:40 to play in the second quarter. Portageville responded with a 7-1 run to end the quarter and only trailed 22-19 at halftime despite committing 19 turnovers in the first half.
"We are not talented enough of a team to commit the number of turnovers that we had and win a ball game," said Portageville head coach Jim Bidewell. "We are also not talented enough to loaf and be good. I thought we lacked desire early on in the game and we had to fight the rest of the way just to compete with South Pemiscot."
To open the third quarter, South Pemiscot went up by five points, 28-23, on back-to-back breakaway lay-ups by Maurichio Clay. South Pemiscot led 31-23 with five minutes to play in the third when Portageville started to chip away with solid half-court offense.
Late in the third quarter, Portageville rallied to cut the deficit to 43-41 heading into the fourth on an offensive rebound and putback by freshman Kony Ealy.
Portageville seemed to seize control in the fourth quarter and got its first lead of the game at 6:40 in the fourth, 45-43. A catalyst for the run was the play of Ealy and Marcus Greene in the second half for Portageville.
Ealy had 11 points in the second half and Greene scored 10 points in the third quarter to lift a lerthargic offense for Portageville. With six minutes to play in the fourth, Portageville had its largest lead of the game, 47-43 and South Pemiscot needed a timeout.
After the timeout, South Pemiscot proceeded to go on a 14-0 run and led 57-47 with two minutes remaining in the game.
South Pemiscot got inside-out production from 6-foot-5 Felix Spates and sharp-shooter Jeremy Patton. Spates went to work in the paint and had six points in the fourth quarter, while Patton drained two big 3-pointers to lead South Pemiscot.
"I thought we finally got into an offensive rhythm late in the game," said Moore. "We showed a lot of heart in the fourth quarter responding after we got down."
Portageville could not respond to the big South Pemiscot run and fell to the Bootheel Conference rivals.
"I think tonight," said Bidewell, "South Pemiscot wanted it more than we did. We came into tonight without a loss and it came to us so easy early. We had always fought back and found a way to win late. South Pemiscot didn't allow that to happen tonight. They fought harder tonight and deserve all the credit for the win."
Ealy led Portageville with 15 points and eight rebounds off the bench. Greene finished the game with 13 points and Trey Mosby had 12 points and four steals.
Spates led South Pemiscot with 17 points and six rebounds (four offensive). Patton had 12 points and five steals, while Clay finished with 11 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals.
The Malden Green Wave proved to be too athletic for the Dexter Bearcats (2-5) and pulled away in the second half with a 75-45 win.
Malden outrebounded Dexter 51-31 in the game and had a 27-16 advantage on the offensive boards.
Led by 6-6 Robbie Ison and 6-5 Quentin Franks in the paint, the Wave had a distinct advantage over the Bearcats, who were without the services of 6-3 forward Drew Satterfield.
"Malden is a very athletic team and did a great job on the boards tonight," said Dexter head coach Chris Trimmer. "They have some serious elevation over there. We were boxing them pretty well, but they would just jump right over us."
Dexter hung tough throughout much of the first half against Malden with hard-nosed play. The Bearcats led 15-13 after one quarter led by junior Eric Windham who had six points in the quarter.
In the first, Malden got three dunks from Ison. Two were on breakaway two-
handed jams and the other was on an offensive rebound, as he gathered himself, and went straight up for the one-handed flush.
The Bearcats trailed 21-20 with 1:32 to play in the second quarter, when Malden ended the quarter on a 6-0 run to lead 27-20 at the break.
Malden started the third quarter on a 11-2 run and outscored Dexter 26-12 in the quarter to open up a close game. The Bearcats had problems with the Green Wave's pressure defense and committed a combined 13 turnovers in the second and third quarters.
"We have struggled all year with teams that play an aggressive man-to-man defense against us," said Trimmer. "I give credit to my kids, they never quit out there and played hard until the final buzzer. I don't think anybody in this gym thought we could play with Malden the way we did in the first half."
The Green Wave (10-0) put a stamp on the win by outscoring Dexter 22-13 for the 30-point victory.
Flashy guard Alonzo Louis led Malden with 14 points. Franks ended his night with 11 points and a game-high 15 rebounds (nine offensive). Junior Antonio Eddings had 10 points and seven rebounds (six offensive) off the bench for the Wave.
Ison finished with eight points, seven rebounds (four offensive) and had five blocks. Trey Porter also came off the bench for Malden and had eight points, five rebounds and four steals.
Kevin Hart led Dexter with 13 points and six rebounds. Windham didn't score past the first quarter, but had six rebounds and three steals. Logan Swindle had a nice game from his guard position with seven rebounds and four steals.