DEXTER, Mo. -- Fourteen minutes, 17 seconds.
That's how many minutes the second-seeded Advance Hornets needed Jan. 26 to surpass their point total from the previous night in the semifinals of the Stoddard County Activities Association Tournament.
A night after losing 63-42 to third-seeded Bernie, the Hornets bounced back to beat the fourth-seeded Puxico Indians 92-69 to win the tournament's third-place game.
"I knew they weren't going to shoot as poorly as they did last night," Puxico coach Nathan Martin said. "I knew they were going to get a lot of shots up throughout the day and in shoot-around this morning, but I didn't expect them to explode for 90."
The Hornets (14-5), who made 12 3-pointers overall with Braiden Brown and Armani Vermillion making four apiece, shot out to a 32-12 lead after one quarter. Vermillion scored 12 of his game-high 25 points in the first quarter, and Brown had nine of his 21. Vermillion and Brown each made two 3-pointers, and Brown turned one of his into a four-point play with 50 seconds left.
Carson Miles, who scored 22 points, fueled the Hornets' 8-0 game-opening run. He scored twice during the run, and he assisted Vermillion's first basket of the game to cap the rally.
Brady Hart snapped the Hornets' run when he scored on an inbounds play under the basket. However, Miles and Brown made 3-pointers to help the Hornets score 10 of the next 13 points for an 18-4 lead.
"In back-to-back games, we ran into guys that got hot early. We found ourselves in a hole we couldn't dig out of," Martin said. The Indians fell victim to Alan Pippins (22 points) and Clay Mullins (20) in their 78-46 loss to Dexter in the semifinals.
Levi Woods, who paced Puxico with 24 points, followed with the first of his two 3-pointers to cut the Indians' deficit to 18-7, but Vermillion answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to extend Advance's lead to 24-7.
Woods made another 3-pointer, and Miles and Woods exchanged driving layups before Brown's four-point play put the Hornets ahead 30-12. Vermillion capped the quarter's scoring with a putback, and the Hornets carried a 20-point lead into the second period.
"They came out with a good intensity. They really did," Advance coach Bubba Wheetley said of his players. "Still, I thought we gave up too many dribble drives. That little guard (Woods) penetrated quite a bit, but we did rebound a lot better. That was one of things we really talked about doing tonight was rebounding better and pushing the ball. We pushed the ball. Instead of walking it up, we ran it."
Puxico sliced its deficit by two points in the second quarter after holding the Hornets scoreless for more than three minutes. Puxico strung together seven straight points during that stretch, cutting its deficit to 42-28 before Brown's 3-pointer with 1:17 left in the quarter. Brown followed with a layup on a full-court pass to push the Hornets' lead to 47-28.
After the Indians' Hunter Walker made a baseline jumper and Woods made two free throws, Vermillion sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Advance a 50-32 halftime lead.
The Hornets padded their lead by 11 points in the third, outscoring Puxico 24-13, to take a 74-45 lead into the fourth quarter. Michael Hood, who opened the quarter with a pair of 3-pointers, scored eight of his 13 in the third, and Brown added seven, including another 3-pointer.
Jack Below scored seven fourth-quarter points as the Hornets pushed their lead past 30 during parts of the final quarter, but the Indians didn't quit, closing the game on a 9-0 run. Dalton King, who tallied 15 points, scored seven of those nine points.
"Our guys don't give up. They fight to the end," Martin said. "We've had a lot of fans come up to the boys and the coaching staff and say, 'We like the way your guys stay after it to the end,' regardless of whether we're going to get the win. Not just our fans but opposing fans. I respect our boys a lot for that. ... Fundamentally, we've got to tighten things up, but we'll be OK."
Wheetley said that his team took a step in the right direction with the win but still has plenty of room for improvement.
"We still have a lot to work on to get where we want to get. It's there. It's there. I know it is. We've just got to go in and work harder the next three weeks in practice," Wheetley said. "I keep telling them this. Hopefully, it'll sink in and we'll do it. We have to improve the next three weeks. Hopefully, we'll peak at the right time."
Advance 32 18 24 18 -- 92
Puxico 12 20 13 24 -- 69
ADVANCE (14-5) -- Vermillion 10(4) 1-2 25. Brown 8(4) 1-1 21. Hood 5(3) 0-0 13. Shelby 0. Miles 9(1) 3-4 22. Chubb 0. Roper 0. Whitley 1 0-0 2. Below 3 1-2 7. Curtis 0. Alcorn 0. Eggimann 1 0-0 2. Totals 37(12) 6-9 92.
PUXICO (9-10) -- Wood 6(2) 10-11 24. Jones 2(1) 1-2 6. King 5(2) 0-2 15. Hart 3 3-4 9. Bollinger 1 2-2 4. Walker 1 0-0 2. Heath 1(1) 0-0 3. Geohagan 3 0-1 6. Totals 22(6) 16-22 69.