December 28, 2017

BLOOMFIELD -- Hayti spent the entire second quarter in the bonus, none of the second half in the bonus, and was rewarded by knocking off a pesky Bloomfield squad. The second-seeded Indians led No. 10 Bloomfield by two points at halftime and didn't take its first double-digit lead until there was less than four minutes remaining in the game before winning 65-52...

BLOOMFIELD -- Hayti spent the entire second quarter in the bonus, none of the second half in the bonus, and was rewarded by knocking off a pesky Bloomfield squad.

The second-seeded Indians led No. 10 Bloomfield by two points at halftime and didn't take its first double-digit lead until there was less than four minutes remaining in the game before winning 65-52.

Hayti (7-2) will play Doniphan in the semifinals Thursday.

Bloomfield (6-3) attempted 21 free throws in the first half, 15 of them in the second quarter after getting the Indians in early foul trouble.

"We just didn't guard. Our positioning was so bad and we've got a lot of work to do before we can compete and play," Hayti coach Aaron Bidewell said. "A lot credit goes to Bloomfield. Coach (Brandon) Crook had them ready and had them organized. They outplayed us. They deserved to win. We just hit a few shots at the end, but they totally outworked us."

Ethan Pennington drew a foul late in the first quarter that was the seventh against Hayti. In the second quarter, the Wildcats were 9 for 14 on free throws and 13 for 21 overall in the first half. They finished 18 for 29 in the game.

"It helped us hang around in the first half," Crook said. "The second half we didn't shoot as many, which may have played an outcome late in the game, but we were also making more shots in the second half to give ourselves a chance late. Hayti just made more shots than we did."

Dalton Phillips was 6 for 8 from the foul line for Bloomfield in the first half, including two technical free throws awarded after Hayti's Darius Jones missed a dunk and hung on the rim afterward. Phillips finished with 12 total points.

Travis McCullough, who had 11 points, sank a 3 for Bloomfield with 90 seconds left in the third quarter to tie the game again, but Hayti closed the third quarter with an eight-point run helped out by a pair of 3-pointers.

Bloomfield quickly cut the lead in half and after some rally scoring, Jones sank a 3 and the Indians followed with a pair of cutbacks to take the first double-digit lead of the game with less than four minutes remaining. The Wildcats fouled down the stretch but didn't make a run.

"They got so many offensive rebounds that we probably lost count. They got so many second-chance points. That is what lost us the ball game," Crook said.

Jones led Hayti with 21 points. He had 10 in the fourth quarter after making a pair of 3-pointers. Kobe Cooper added 11 points, all in the second half.

"We hit a few shots but more than anything else we started guarding a little harder. We took a little pride in getting stops, getting the ball out quick and trying to score as quick as we could off transition buckets," Bidewell said.

Jones scored Hayti's first five points and Jayshaund Moore added a bucket to give the Indians an early 7-2 lead.

Peyton Bell brought Bloomfield back within one possession with three free throws over a couple of possessions and later added a 3-pointer to maintain the margin.

"Bell is a heck of a player. He's been in games like this for four years now," Bidewell said. "He's a good player. Really trying to limit him as much as we can. Good players are hard to limit. But he did a great job."

Ivory Winters got a putback with just under a minute to go that put Hayti ahead by five, which is where the lead stayed until the buzzer. Bloomfield, though, struck one last blow after Pennington drew Hayti's seventh foul.

Two minutes into the second quarter with Bloomfield down by four, Bell drew a hard charge from Cooper. It was Cooper's third foul, but the charge also kept Bell on the floor for a couple minutes.

Bell was helped off the floor and into the locker room by medical personnel. He returned to play after a little less than two minutes of game time expired.

"When he first went down I was thinking he hit his head on the floor, is what I thought. He's been having some back issues and that is what it was," Crook said. "Peyton does a lot for us so as soon as he went down, I was concerned for his health, but I also know what he can bring to the table for us, and I was worried about if we were going to have him the rest of the game. If not the rest of the game, the rest of the tournament or the rest of the year."

Without their senior point guard, the Wildcats were turnover prone, but Phillips got two successful trips to the free-throw line in the bonus for four points.

Bell didn't score a field goal between getting hurt and the halftime buzzer. He drew a foul late and made a free throw, giving him nine points for the first half. However, he finished with 22 points, 14 of them after drawing that charge.

Bell came out of the break strong with the first field goal of the second half, tying the game for the first time since it was 2-2.

Bloomfield will play No. 3 Bernie at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in a fifth-place semifinal.

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