BLOOMFIELD -- The 13th-seeded Bloomfield Wildcats nearly pulled off the first upset of the day at the 62nd Annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament.
The Wildcats took fourth-seeded Doniphan to the wire before falling 38-36 in the first round Wednesday at Bloomfield High School.
Doniphan (6-5) will meet East Prairie in the championship quarterfinals at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Bloomfield (1-7) will face Gideon in a consolation quarterfinal at 10 a.m. Thursday.
"(Assistant) coach (Jon) Simpher and I are very proud of how we performed tonight," Bloomfield coach Brandon Crook said. "It was a 13-4 matchup, and we had a great chance to come out on the winners' bracket. It just so happens it ended the way it had the last four games."
The Wildcats had lost their past four games by a combined total of nine points.
"We've got to be able to make plays because I know there for a stretch late in the game in that fourth quarter, we didn't score for the longest time," Crook said. "I don't know how long it was, but we've got to make plays and put the ball in the hole. If we would've done that, it probably would've been a different outcome."
Doniphan coach Daniel Cagle said he wasn't surprised with how the close the game was.
"I knew they were capable of playing with us," Cagle said. "It was a good game. We came out and did a good job defensively, but we just couldn't buy a shot. I'd like to think my guys were ready, but I'm not sure they were. We've had a little bit of a layoff over Christmas break. Bloomfield plays hard. I knew if we didn't play with intensity, they could play with us, and that's what happened."
Bloomfield carried a 29-27 lead into the fourth quarter before Orie Owen made two free throws and Trent Lippoldt scored on a pass from Owen for a 31-29 lead.
The Dons never trailed again, although Bloomfield climbed within one point twice. Malik Williams made one of two free throws with 5:02 to play, cutting Bloomfield's deficit to 31-30.
Doniphan extended its lead to six (36-30) before the Wildcats sliced it to 37-36 with two free throws by Carson Blair, who led them with 10 points, in the closing seconds.
Derek Ferguson made a free throw with 5.2 seconds left to extend the Dons' lead to 38-36. The Wildcats couldn't get a shot off before the buzzer.
The Dons fed the ball to 6-foot-7 Lippoldt in the first quarter and built a 12-6 lead. Lippoldt scored 10 of his team-high 19 points in the opening period. Owen (6-6) scored two of his 13 points in the first quarter.
"Coming in, we knew they had height. They had a size advantage," Crook said. "We wanted to try to make things as difficult as possible. We didn't do it at the start as well as we wanted to, but we did focus on taking away their inside (guys). Overall, I thought we did a pretty job of that. We hold a team to 38 points; we did a pretty good job."
Bloomfield tied the score at 18 in the second quarter on a 3-pointer by Gage McNeil, who finished with eight points, with 45 seconds remaining, but Max Torres scored inside to give the Dons a 20-18 halftime lead.
The Wildcats took their first lead of the game (23-22) on a 3-pointer by Travis McCullough.
Owen drove the baseline to restore Doniphan's lead (24-23), but Blair answered with a 3-pointer to give Bloomfield a 26-24 advantage.
The Wildcats pushed their lead to 29-25 on a 3-pointer by McNeil, but Owen scored on a fast break to slice Doniphan's deficit to two points by the start of the fourth.
The Dons struggled offensively, making only 37 percent (15 of 41) of their shots.
"It was rough," Cagle said. "We just couldn't get the ball in the hole. Even from the free throw line, we couldn't make free throws. We couldn't buy a basket."
Doniphan went eight of 15 from the free throw line.
Dexter 85, Malden 38
The third-seeded Dexter Bearcats opened the second quarter with a 17-4 run and built a 23-point halftime lead en route to an 85-38 first-round victory over 14th-seeded Malden.
The Bearcats (4-4) will face the winner of the Twin Rivers-Richland game in a championship quarterfinal at 8:30 p.m. Thursday. Malden (0-7) will meet the loser in a consolation quarterfinal at 1 p.m. Thursday.
The Green Wave, who lost 70-35 to Dexter on Dec. 14, took a 7-6 lead in the first quarter and made a late charge to trail by only five points entering the second period.
After Malden's Sientez Lerma finished inside on a pass from Dominique Townsend for a one-point lead, the Bearcats scored the next 11 points to take a 17-7 advantage. Eric Hahn scored five points, and Garrett Henson had four during the stretch that included Nate Gargas drawing a charge.
The Green Wave closed the quarter with an 8-3 run and trailed 20-15 entering the second period. Lonnie Hamilton, who paced them with 14 points, began and ended the rally with baskets inside.
"We came out. We were doing the things we had to do to win in the first quarter," Malden coach Cole McBroom said. "The first quarter wasn't great defensively. We gave up 20 points, but we were rebounding. We were communicating on the offensive end. We were attacking the ball, and our post guys were trying to post up. I think we got a little tired or something, and we totally went away from what we can do to be successful."
The Bearcats shifted from a zone to a man-to-man defense in the second quarter.
"The zone didn't work too well so we went to man, and that seemed to work pretty well," Dexter coach Lloyd Hyten said. "(We) had quite a bit of intensity there. I thought the defense kind of turned it around for us."
Dexter made four of its nine 3-pointers in the second quarter, and Braxton Foster, Garrett Henson and Ethan Kincy scored inside to give their team a 47-24 halftime lead.
Seth Rogers made three 3-pointers in the second quarter and finished with a game-high 17 points. Foster finished with 15 points, Eric Hahn had 14 and Garrett Henson 13.
"They moved the ball real well," Hyten said. "Other than the last two minutes of the first quarter, I was pretty happy with their overall play. They got a lot of good looks. They had a lot of good passes. We didn't have too many turnovers. ... We did a good job handling the ball."
The Bearcats amassed only 11 turnovers, while Malden committed 21.
Dexter outscored the Green Wave 38-14 in the second half, taking a 64-32 lead into the final quarter where the clock ran continuously because of the 30-point mercy rule.
Bernie 75, Puxico 23
Andrew Geohagan gave the second-seeded Bernie Mules an early lift Wednesday before the shots started falling.
Geohagan scored eight of his 13 points in the first quarter in the Mules' 75-23 first-round win over 15th-seeded Puxico.
"Andrew, he continues to improve," Bernie coach Brad Botsch said of his 6-5 junior who transferred to Bernie from Puxico in the offseason. "He's working hard on his post game. I thought he had a good effort today."
The Mules (8-1) will meet the winner of the Kennett-South Pemiscot game in a championship quarterfinal at 7 p.m. Thursday. Puxico (2-8) will face the loser in a consolation quarterfinal at 11:30 a.m. Thursday.
Ethan Helm helped the Indians stay close in the first quarter scoring 10 of his 13 team-high points, but the Mules took a 21-12 lead into the second.
The Mules started to connect from outside in the second quarter, making six of their 12 3-pointers to take a 42-14 halftime lead.
"We came out a little bit tight," Botsch said. "We missed some open looks early, but the kids kind of settled in and shot it pretty well after that. It's important for us to establish the inside game first and go from there."
Weston Zoll made two of his five 3-pointers in the second quarter and finished with a game-high 23 points. Hunter Slavings sank three of his four 3-pointers in the period and finished with 17 points.
Puxico managed only nine second-half points, and the Mules took a 64-21 lead into the final quarter where the 30-point mercy rule was initiated.
Hayti 115, Holcomb 40
Five different players scored in double figures, and top-seeded Hayti made 51 field goals in a 115-40 first-round rout of 16th-seeded Holcomb.
The Indians (5-2) will meet the winner of the Portageville-Van Buren game in the championship quarterfinals at 4 p.m. Thursday. Holcomb (0-8) will face the loser in a consolation quarterfinal at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
Xavier Jammerson scored a game-high 30 points and Ivory Winters had 15. Damori Reed and Tyliek Moore scored 14 each with Moore making the Indians' only 3-pointer. TreCharles McCoy added 13 points.
Nate Rhew paced Holcomb with 14 points, and Eli Bader had 10.
The Indians held quarter leads of 35-9, 69-22 and 104-28.