BERNIE -- Bernie coach Brad Botsch and Puxico coach Nathan Martin came away from Tuesday's semifinal matchup in the Bernie Invitational with similar reactions to their team's play.
Both coaches thought their players gave up too many transition baskets and the defense needed to improve.
The difference was early, as Bernie was able to slow down Puxico and jump out to a 14-2 lead before winning 83-70.
"I told the boys at half, if we make it a 12-6 game or even a 12-8 game to start, we're down four at half, and then we only lose by four," Martin said."
Nate Dillinger had nine of his 33 points for Bernie (2-0) in the first quarter and led all players in scoring.
"We did a pretty good job early on of defending and then they got a lot of dribble drive baskets," Botsch said. "We didn't get back several times and they hurt us in transition. Our kids have to be smarter than that and realize they are going to have to guard better.
"I think we'll be able to put up some points but we are going to have to defend people if we are going to really improve our play that much more."
Bernie scored the first seven points of the game, allowed a bucket by Levi Woods, and then scored another seven points.
Despite the early dominance, the Mules were never quite able to put Puxico away.
Puxico (1-2) was still down 13 with 2 minutes left in the second quarter when it scored eight straight.
"We were starting to play like we wanted to play, and our style of play is getting it up, getting it out quick. That's something Bernie did a lot better job of tonight overall. Off of missed free throws, they got it up quick. We were kind of lazy, kind of relaxed betting back," Martin said.
The Mules recovered some momentum to start the second half after scoring on their first three possessions, rebuilding their double-digit lead.
Bernie was up by 20 with 2 1/2 minutes left in the game, but again Puxico didn't go away.
Still pressing and running for quick shots, the Indians scored 10 points in 90 seconds and cut the lead to 15 with a minute to go, which is when Bernie held the ball and burned 40 seconds off the clock before a turnover and Indians bucket set the final score.
"Bernie did a good job of getting the ball in the middle. We've got to do a better job of sprinting back on defense," Martin said. "They got a lot of easy buckets on the other end. They probably had 30-plus transition buckets out of breaking our press, maybe not that many, but we've got to work on transition buckets. We've got to work on getting more pressure out of our press."
After scoring 38 points in the opening-round win over Twin Rivers, Woods had 26 against Bernie.
"Obviously he's filling it up and playing really confident," Botsch said of Woods. "You just have to do the best you can and prevent him from getting the ball. At times we did OK with that and at times he burned us. He got some runouts and he does a good job of continuing to play hard. We just didn't find ways to stop him enough. If want to continue to beat solid teams we are going to have to find a way to stop those really good players."
Woods had a quiet start for the second night in a row with four points in the first quarter. He scored on Puxico's first three possessions of the second, cutting the lead to 11 points, and Botsch called a timeout to address the situation.
"They've got some guards who can get out and go and do a good job of putting their head down and coming at you. I thought early on we did a pretty good job of defending them and we missed some easy shots and those easy shots led to transition buckets," Botsch said. "Our kids have to be smarter and get back. They had 50 points in the paint tonight and that is not something we are going to accept and say it's OK."
Bradien Jones and Dalton King each added 13 points for Puxico and Hunter Slavings had 17 for Bernie.
"Levi did his job, Dalton did OK," Martin said. "These guys are working hard. Thirteen points, that's not far off, that's five possessions. We'll be all right."
He added that Puxico is not far off from being one of the top teams in the area, and the difference right now is rebounding.
"We got out-rebounded bad. We've got to rebound better. That's our No. 1 focus right now," Martin said. "We've got length, we've got size, and if you've got length and size you should be able to control the boards a little better than what we have."
Twin Rivers 75, Holcomb 43
Hayden Thomas had 22 points for the Royals, including 11 in the first quarter. It was the second quarter, though, where Twin Rivers pulled away by out-scoring the Hornets 22-8 to lead 41-23 at the half and eventually advance to the finals of the Bernie Invitational consolation bracket.
Zach Hargraves added 14 points for Twin Rivers and Aaron Mittelstadt got 11.
Holcomb also had three players in double figures. Korben Tucker led the team with 13 points while Gabe Roso got 11 and Noah Hobbs had 10.
Bloomfield 47, Campbell 22
The Wildcats didn't score in the fourth quarter. Bloomfield held Campbell to 14 points through three quarters and was ahead by 33 going into the final frame. The Camels went without a field goal in the third quarter and got four points on free throws.
Travis McCollough led Bloomfield with 12 points, all on 3-pointers, as the Wildcats will play Twin Rivers in the finals of the consolation bracket.
Robert Hirtz led Campbell with 11 points.