January 21, 2018

BERNIE, Mo. -- The Mules became more aggressive on offense after halftime, both individually and schematically, and turned a six-point lead into a running clock. After a slow start, Bernie steadily took more and more control against Puxico. The Mules held the Indians to six points in the fourth quarter, outscored them 44-19 in the second half as Weston Zoll's three-point play in the final seconds capped Bernie's 81-50 win Friday...

BERNIE, Mo. -- The Mules became more aggressive on offense after halftime, both individually and schematically, and turned a six-point lead into a running clock.

After a slow start, Bernie steadily took more and more control against Puxico. The Mules held the Indians to six points in the fourth quarter, outscored them 44-19 in the second half as Weston Zoll's three-point play in the final seconds capped Bernie's 81-50 win Friday.

"We weren't as tentative offensively. I thought we attacked them a lot better in the second half. That really proved to be the difference," Bernie coach Brad Botsch said.

Bernie (12-5) dominated in the post both with their guards and forwards. Michael Suiter had eight of Bernie's 12 points in the first quarter before getting into foul trouble.

Suiter picked up his fourth foul in the final minute of third quarter, in which he didn't score a point. He went to the bench for about four minutes and eventually fouled out with 3 1/2 minutes remaining. He finished with 16 points, 14 of it in the first half.

In his absence, fellow forward Nate Dillinger picked up the slack.

"Mike got in foul trouble some, but he had, especially in the first half, he kept us right there and kept digging in down low and we needed him to do that. Nate didn't have a very good first half offensively. Second half he kind of perked up a little bit. We really challenged him at halftime and I thought he had a much better second half," Botsch said.

Dillinger had two points in the first half and six when Suiter picked up his fourth foul.

In those four minutes that Suiter was out, Dillinger scored eight points, including Bernie's first three buckets of the fourth quarter. He got the last of his 15 points in style with a breakaway one-handed jam.

Starting in the third quarter, the Bernie guards started running the weave offense regularly.

With them driving and kicking, Bernie scored 22 points in both the third and fourth quarters. Zoll matched Suiter for the team-high 16 points, while Hunter Slavings added 14, 12 of it in the second half, and Blake Harty had 11.

"It was good to see the guards get into the flow, too. We had injuries here and there and we are just now starting to get everybody back. Hopefully are kids are getting into the offensive flow and will be a little more fluid," Botsch said.

Puxico (8-8) was the better team to start and led Bernie 12-6 in the early going.

"They came out hot. You have to give them some credit. Their kids came out and shot the ball well. It wasn't just one or two of them. They really spread the ball around and knocked some shots down," Botsch said. "We changed defenses a couple different times and finally settled into something we thought helped us some, got out and checked them a little bit better."

The Indians celebrated big buckets with lots of energy, but the celebrations stopped as Bernie took over.

"The first half we looked good," Puxico coach Nathan Martin said. "I'm not upset with our effort at all. The boys played hard. Bernie just executed well in the second half and that was the difference in the game."

Puxico kept its six-point lead into the second quarter, then Bernie scored six points in a minute, four on free throws, to tie the game at 23. It was tied two more times before Bernie took the lead for good on Suiter's putback with 2 1/2 minutes left in the first half.

"Suiter is good, Dillinger is obviously tough. He's a hard matchup for anybody," Martin said. "We rely heavily on being able to shoot outside, but that is not our game completely. We didn't shoot the ball well tonight. The second half, Bernie shot the ball very well."

Puxico made four 3-pointers, all of them in the first half. Brady Hart led Puxico with 22 points and Levi Woods had 12.

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