BERNIE, Mo. - The fifth-seeded Puxico Indians upset the fourth-seeded Bernie Mules 77-65 in an opening-round contest at the eight-team Bernie Invitational Monday.
Bernie led 35-34 at halftime before Puxico won the third quarter 27-15 and entered the fourth period with a commanding 61-50 lead.
"Tough way to start the year," Bernie coach Brad Botsch said in a press release to Dexter Daily Statesman. "Puxico was able to do pretty much whatever they wanted to do to us offensively, as we were never able to stop them. Our effort and focus on the defensive side of the ball must improve exponentially, or we won't compete very well. We actually had some guys score decently for us, but if we don't value playing defense, it's going to be tough to get wins against quality opponents."
Nathan Dare, Dalton King and Levi Woods combined to calculate eight 3-pointers for Puxico.
Woods hit a team-high four treys and finished with 18 points. King and and Dare both hit a pair of treys. Dare finished with 19 points and King scored 18 points.
Nate Dillinger tallied a team-high 20 points for Bernie.
Dalton Hobgood hit five of Bernie's seven 3-pointers. He scored all 17 of his points in the first half.
Alex Whitehead hit four 2-pointers and a pair of treys. He finished with 14 points.
Puxico will play top-seeded Bloomfield in a championship semifinal Thursday at 6 p.m. Bloomfield beat Risco 58-28 in its quarterfinal Monday. Additional information on the Bloomfield-Risco game was not available by 11 p.m. print deadline Monday night.
Bernie plays Risco Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. in a consolation semifinal.
No. 5 Puxico 77, No. 4 Bernie 65
PHS 12 22 27 16 - 77
BHS 15 20 15 15 - 65
PUXICO (77) Levi Woods 18, Nathan Dare 19, John Roberts 4, Chris Siler 8, Dalton King 18, Jordan Burch 8, Brad Clark 2. FG 30, FT 9/13, F 13. (3-pointers: Woods 4, Dare 2, King 2. Fouled out: none).
BERNIE (65) - Alex Guzman 4, Nate Dillinger 20, Alex Whitehead 14, Dalton Hobgood 17, Gavin Brown 10. FG 27, FT 4/8, F 16. (3-pointers: Hobgood 5, Whitehead 2. Fouled out: none).