The scheduled times will remain the same at this point and the tournament will open on Thursday at 10:00 AM with the number one seed Kennett Indians taking on the Richland Rebels. Bernie will square off against East Prairie at 11:15 AM, Hayti versus Saxony Lutheran at 12:30 PM, South Pemiscot against Puxico at 2:00 PM and Twin Rivers will play Dexter at 3:30 PM.
The evening games will begin at 5:00 PM with Holcomb against Van Buren, Portageville will take on Doniphan at 6:30 PM and Malden will play the host team Bloomfield at 8:00 PM.
The tournament has a been a long time tradition for the Holidays and is filled with great high school basketball action. Make your plans now to be in Bloomfield at the 56th Annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament.
For an up-to-date BCT Bracket, Click Here!
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Brosley MO - An old sports adage is "defense wins championships". No where was this more apparent than at the Twin Rivers Lady Royals Christmas Tournament this year. The Lady Cats allowed an average if 21.3 points per game in route to their second straight title.
Saturday nights game with Neelyville started a little different than the first three had. The Lady Tigers, without the services of senior leader Kayla Maupin, played an aggressive defense which the Lady Cats some problems early on.
The teams traded baskets before Paige Patterson (13 points) and Mollie Whitehead made free throws to give the Cats a 6 -3 lead. Brittany Harris (10 points and an all tournament selection) made two baskets to open the lead to 7 and after an assist by Alison Jarrell (17 points) Katelynn Frazier (all tournament team selection) had two baskets to open the lead to 14-3. After a basket by Erika Cobb (the third of the Dexter all tournament team members) the Lady Cats had a 16-7 first quarter lead.
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The Lady Cats really blew the game open with a 30 point second quarter. Three pointers by Noe and Jarrell, and baskets by Harris, Patterson, Cobb and Whitehead opened up the 46-14 halftime lead. Much of the offense was created by great man to man defense which created a number of Neelyville turnovers.
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With the game well in hand Erika Cobb had two baskets and Paige Patterson had one to open the second half. Alison Jarrell had a couple of free throws and Dakota Reynolds had a nifty spin move drive to the basket. Patterson and Whitehead had baskets to make the third quarter score 63-22 entering the fourth quarter.
With a running clock for the fourth time in four games of the tournament, the Lady Cats substituted often with Alison Jarrell making two 3's and a basket by Harris, gave the Cats the win at a score of 71-32.
The Lady Cats, now with a 10-1 record, have the Christmas break off until January 3rd where they will face the Farmington Knightets, which they will host at the BEC starting at 6 on that Thursday night.
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Brosley MO - The Dexter Lady Bearcats faced their second undefeated team in two games when they took on the Clearwater Lady Tigers in the semi-final round of the Twin Rivers Christmas Tournament.
Clearwater came in after an impressive win over Twin Rivers on Tuesday night and were led by sophomore Lexi Morris, who had averaged 28.5 points in her first two games.
The Lady Cats started with their full court press defense and forced a number of Clearwater turnovers on route to a 19-0 run to open the game. Five different players scored in the 19 point run with Brittany Harris scoring 8 of her game high 32 points (along with 11 rebounds) in the opening quarter.
Erika Cobb, Alison Jarrell, Katelynn Frazier, and Paige Patterson all scored for the Cats before Morris hit a 3 for the Lady Tigers. With baskets from Melanie McKuin and MaKayla Waldner the Cats owned a 23-3 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Lady Cats went to a straight half court man and man defense in the second quarter and continued to force turnovers from the Lady Tiger offense, which committed 34 on the night. On offense the Lady Cats mixed it up with the inside game of Harris, Patterson and Mollie Whitehead and 3 by Alison Jarrell to run to a 43-12 halftime lead. One oddity was that all 12 of Clearwater's first half points were scored by sophomore Lexi Morris.
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The Lady Cats depth really stood out in the third quarter as Coach Chad Allen continued to rotate in 10 players force turnovers. As Clearwater went to a 1-3-1 zone the Lady Cats had open looks at three point shots which Hannah Noe took advantage of knocking down her three for the night.
With a 66-17 lead going into the fourth quarter the running clock was in play for the third game in a row at Twin Rivers. Harris, Cobb, Frazier and Whitehead scored before the JV game on with about 4 minutes left in the game to finish up. Dakota Reynolds scored four points in the last four minutes and Katie Reiker had two on a nice assist from MaKayla Waldner to give a final score of 80-24.
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With the win the Lady Cats advance to the finals of the Twin Rivers Christmas tournament for the second year in a row. They will face either New Madrid County Central (the 2 seed) or Neelyville (the 3 seed) on Saturday night at 7:30 with a chance to win the title. Come cheer on the Lady Cats to victory.
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Bernie, Missouri - The Bernie Mules were well aware their game against Twin Rivers would be a true battle of championship level teams. The Mules had a lot to protect with their undefeated 8-0 record to this point in the 2012-13 high school basketball season.
“This was a very physical, hard-fought win for us," noted Bernie's Head Coach Brad Botsch. "Twin Rivers brings size and braun, and we had to really fight hard to come out on top."
The Mules were able to win the contest by a score of 63 to 61, led in scoring by David Baker with 18-points for Bernie.
Bernie found themselves down by a point after the first quarter of play as the Twin Rivers Royals posted 16 points. But the Mules were able to gain back an offensive assault in the 2nd quarter with hot shooting of Joey Walker and Landon Woods. Each athlete posted 6-points each during the 2nd quarter to give the Mules a halftime lead 31-26.
But in the third quarter, the Royals were able to fight back to close that lead down to only two points. Twin Rivers Snider led the team with 6-points to keep his team in reach of the Mules going into the fourth quarter.
"Just when I would think we were about to put them away, they’d fight back and get a couple of buckets," noted Botsch.
The Royals' Snider and Ray continued their top offensive play during the fourth quarter to keep the game tight. Twin Rivers would not allow this game to get away from them outscoring the Mules 17 to 14 in the the third quarter..
B. J. Jennings' performance was steady and sure at the free throw line. Having hit a 3-pointer in the first quarter, Jennings waited until the fourth quarter to offer his steady hand to make 7 of 10 free throws to help win the game.
Sam Turner also hit an important 3-pointer in the fourth to help the Mules hang on to the win.
"It’s tough to play a good team twice in a 3 week span, but fortunately we were able to get the win," closed Coach Botsch.
The Mules will be back in action at the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament on Wednesday, December 26th at 11:15 AM when they will take on the East Prairie Eagles. The Mules received a #2 seed in the tournament. Twin Rivers has been seeded #5 and will play the Dexter Bearcats at 3:30 the same day in the opening round of the tournament.
Bernie's Junior Varsity was able to win their game against the Royals by a score of 47 to 29. Ellenburg continued to lead his team with 18 points on the night, followed by Woods with 12 and Jennings with 10. The Bernie JV is also having a great season with an 8-0 record on the season.
Brosley MO - Webster's dictionary defines domination as "to rule or control a person or group". The Lady Cats did just that Monday night with their total domination of the Doniphan Donnetts by a score of 80 -14 in the second round of the Twin Rivers Christmas tournament.
The domination was so complete that for all intents and purposes the game was over by the end of the first quarter. Dexter scored 29 in the first quarter while holding Doniphan scoreless for the first quarter shut out. Paige Patterson started off with two of game total nine points on an offensive rebound of a Erika Cobb miss.
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The next trip done the floor Erika Cobb hit for tow and then Alison Jarrell had a three and a two and the Cats were up 9-0. After a Doniphan timeout, the scoring continued as Brittany Harris hit tow of her game high 22 points and Hannah Noe got in the act with a basket. Harris had 8 more in the quarter and MaKayla Waldner added 4 and the rout was on.
The second quarter was more of the same. Patterson had a free throw, Whitehead and Cobb (10 points for the night) had baskets. Noe, Jarrell, Patterson, Harris and Whitehead all contributed baskets and Hannah Noe through in a three at the buzzer of the half to give the Cats a 59-1 halftime lead.
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While the Lady Cats shot the ball well, the real story of the night was the defense. The Lady Cats limited Doniphan to 15 percent shooting on the night and Doniphan did not score their first bucket until there was 2:48 left to go in the third quarter. Coach Chad Allen was impressed with his teams defense.
"I thought they played with a lot of intensity on the defensive end tonight" he commented. We played both our match up zone and our man to man well and I didn't think we gave them very many good looks at the basket".
The starters played for about 5 minutes to begin the second half and ran off a quick 12 points on a number of steals and Doniphan turnovers. Doniphan for the night had 24 turnovers while the Lady Cats committed only 9. The fourth quarter was a running clock for the third game in a row and for the second game in this tournament the JV group play the entire quarter.
Dexter is next in action on Thursday night as they take on either Twin Rivers or Clearwater in a semi final contest. Game time is 6:30 p.m. at Twin Rivers High School.
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