BERNIE, Mo. -- The top-seeded Bernie Mules made the final stand against the Puxico Indians on Tuesday night.
The Mules held off a Puxico rally, scored eight of the game's final 10 points and beat the Indians 59-46 in the the MSHSAA Class 2 District 1 semifinal.
The Indians overcame a 12-point second-quarter deficit to tie the score early in the fourth, but Bernie seniors Nate Dillinger and Michael Suiter sparked a game-closing 17-6 run.
"If you're not ready to compete, somebody will knock you off anytime this time of the year," Bernie coach Brad Botsch said. "I'm proud of our kids for not running away. We didn't have our best night, but you don't always have your best night. Sometimes, you just survive, and our kids dug in enough when they needed to to find a way to win."
The Mules (21-6) will meet Hayti (18-5) for the district championship at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Second-seeded Hayti beat third-seeded South Pemiscot 82-47 in Tuesday's other semifinal.
After Dalton King tied the score at 40-all on a 3-pointer with 7:02 left in the game, Suiter and Dillinger made back-to-back baskets inside. Sophomore Blake Harty sank a 3-pointer after the fourth-seeded Indians missed two free throws for a 47-40 lead.
The two teams exchanged a pair of free throws and baskets with Matt Bollinger's jumper cutting the Mules' lead to 51-44 with 3:05 play.
Dillinger and Harty combined to make six of eight free throws in the final 2:44 to secure the win.
"There toward the fourth, we just had a few mishaps," Puxico coach Nathan Martin said. "The boys played hard. I'm not going to take anything away from that. Things happen in basketball. It takes its toll. People are going to throw the ball away. People are going to foul and make other mistakes, and Bernie came out on top. They're well coached. ... We just got beat by a ball team that was a little better than us at the end."
A key to the Mules' victory was their defense of Puxico's leading scorer, Levi Woods, who was held to a season-low five points.
"He's a great player. You've got to give a lot of attention to him," Botsch said. "Our kids did a good job of being able to find him. We were fortunate enough that he didn't get going because he's an outstanding player."
The Mules built an 18-8 lead after one quarter against a patient Puxico offense.
"We weren't looking to jack up a lot of shots, and we didn't," Martin said. "I think it worked for about three quarters and two minutes. The last six minutes, it got a little away from us."
The Indians wanted to slow the pace after Bernie scored 83 points (83-70 on Nov. 28) and 81 points (81-50 Jan. 9) in two victories against them this season.
Suiter scored eight of his 14 points in the first quarter, and Harty, who finished with 15, and Hunter Slavings each made 3-pointers.
King scored six first-quarter points to keep the Indians afloat. He finished with a game-high 21.
The Indians cut their deficit to eight points (22-16) with a 6-0 run in the second quarter. Matt Bollinger scored on an inbounds pass, and King finished a fast-break opportunity and had a steal and a layup.
Bernie stretched its lead back to 11 on a baseline jumper by Dillinger and Weston Zoll's only 3-pointer of the game.
Woods nailed a 3-pointer to close out the second-quarter scoring and sliced the Indians' deficit to 27-19.
Puxico came out with huge burst of energy in the third quarter, getting its crowd involved and trimming seven points off Bernie's lead in the quarter.
"I told the boys, 'Look we're down eight at half,' " Martin said of his halftime speech. "I said, 'That's five buckets. We can make up five buckets in 16 minutes; we win the ballgame.' And I think that kind of got them going and motivated."
The Indians used a pair of 6-0 runs to cut their deficit to 38-37 by the start of the final quarter.
Brady Hart's basket after a Bernie turnover, Bollinger's jumper and King's fast-break bucket on an assist by Woods sliced the Mules' lead to 29-27.
Bernie stretched its lead back to seven before the Indians closed the quarter with another 6-0 run. King's driving layup and fast-break basket -- both following Bernie turnovers -- and Woods' driving layup cut the Indians' deficit to one.
"We struggled shooting most of the night," Botsch said. "You've got to give them a lot of credit. They followed their game plan. We didn't knock down shots. We did some uncharacteristic things tonight, but you know you've got to give Puxico some credit for that. Their kids have a lot of intensity, and they were out there really competing."