SIKESTON -- At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Poplar Bluff's Dominique Hardimon held the ball near half court for a solid 3 minutes. The Mules didn't attempt a shot for 4 minutes in a classic display of old-time basketball.
They were clinging to a two point lead, Jackson went to a zone defense, and Poplar Bluff waited, and waited, and waited some more for that zone to extend. It did, and third-seeded Poplar Bluff ground out a 45-40 win over sixth-seeded Jackson in the first round of the SEMO Conference Tournament at Sikeston.
"We played really sloppy and hesitant tonight. We let them dictate the pace of the game. He's a great coach and he did a great job with his team. We didn't expect to see anything different," Poplar Bluff coach William Durden said. "If you were to tell me we would win a game where we scored in the 40s, I would have told you that wasn't going to happen. But I like how we grinded things out."
Poplar Bluff (3-0) advances to play Cape Central in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
Jackson will face New Madrid Central in the consolation bracket at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
"The good news is, we have a lot of time to improve, but we have to get a lot better," Jackson coach Darrin Scott said.
The Mules led by three with 90 seconds left and pressed the Indians, who missed a 3 and Tyler Cline grabbed the long rebound for the Mules before being fouled with 42 seconds left.
He made the front end, and then got a steal to step back on the free-throw line with 31 seconds to go.
In the bonus, he missed his first attempt, but Hardimon got a putback to push the lead to six.
Jackson was able to draw a foul and make two free throws with 11 seconds left, immediately fouled Nik Rowland, who made one, and the clock ran out as the Indians raced up the court and missed a long 3.
"I think we finally got calm and situated. We realized we needed to be patient and win the game," Poplar Bluff senior Xander Martin said. "I think it took us a little bit of time to adjust (to the zone). Eventually we just held it to where they couldn't play zone anymore."
There were 15 combined points in the fourth quarter and Poplar Bluff scored just 18 in the second half, but never trailed in the game. Jackson tied it up once, at 30 points midway through the third quarter.
"On defense we did a pretty good job of taking away the things we wanted to," Scott said. "It seemed like at times (the zone) helped keep them out of the paint."
Poplar Bluff's biggest lead after that point was six points, and its biggest lead all night was nine.
Hardimon led the team with 12 points. Joseph Hardimon and Xander Martin each had nine. Luke Reynolds led Jackson with 11 points, but had none in the fourth quarter.
"I would have liked to get up and down the floor a little more, use our athleticism and push the tempo. I would like to be the team to dictate the tempo and tonight we didn't," Durden said.
Martin sank a pair of 3s in the first few minutes as the first 15 combined points of the game were all 3-pointers.
But then both teams went cold from outside. Poplar Bluff made two 3s the rest of the game and Jackson did the same.
Of the nine made 3-pointers, five were in the first 7 minutes of the game.
"I think it slowed the game down and brought down our confidence as a team. We just had to start hitting again," Martin said.
Ahead 15-12 early in the second quarter, the Mules took their biggest lead of the night with a brief six point burst.
John Taylor made an off-balance layup and Cline followed with a steal for a layup. Then Hardimon made it 21-12 with 4 1/2 minutes left in the game.
The Mules, however, made just one basket over the first 7 minutes of the second half, a 3 by Cline, and Jackson steadily came back to tie the game at 30.
Joseph Hardimon got his own putback to keep the Mules ahead and they managed to go into the fourth quarter up by two.