Kennett cruises past Bernie 59-27 in Bloomfield Christmas Tournament championship

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - Bernie Mules coach Brad Botsch entered Monday night's Bloomfield Christmas Tournament championship against traditional powerhouse Kennett hoping his team could do three things.

Minimize turnovers, get into good, solid offense when possible and win the rebounding battle

A few possessions into the title game Botsch liked his team's chances of doing just that.

"Right out of the gate we had two blockouts on their first two attempts that were awesome," Botsch said. "In fact, one of them even hit the floor before we got it. I thought 'all right our kids are really going to battle and compete.' From then on we were at their mercy so to speak."

The top-seeded Kennett Indians (9-3) took charge quickly after. The Indians held the Mules to less than 10 points in every quarter on its way to a convincing 59-27 championship victory in front of a near capacity crowd at Bloomfield High School.

"We got beat in every facet of the game," Botsch said. "Offensively, defensively, rebounding, turnovers, transition, coaching. We just got beat in every facet and all the credit goes to Kennett. They massively outplayed us and we've got a lot of things to get better at."

Bernie (10-1) led 2-0 following a 2-pointer by Caleb Ellenberg at the 6:56 mark of the first quarter. Kennett led 7-6 with 2:30 remaining in the first quarter before it scored eight straight points to pad its lead to 15-6 by the start of the second period.

The lead swelled to 27-11 with about four minutes left in the first half.

The Mules, which hit nine treys in a 55-54 semifinal win against state-ranked Hayti Saturday, did not attempt a 3-pointer against Kennett in the first half.

"Our biggest concern today was not letting their shooters get open," Kennett coach Jim Vaughan said. "How impressive of our kids to recognize that. We even jumped a little bit in the halfcourt and would double the ball and run to a shooter. We just didn't give them time to set up and get it off. That was our biggest key defensively tonight. Our kids executed it and got it done. That's on them for taking what they knew they had to do and making sure they got it done."

Kennett entered halftime with a 29-13 advantage and quickly deflated any hopes Bernie may have had of a second-half rally. The Indians scored the first 15 points of the second half to move ahead 44-15 with 4:16 remaining in the third quarter.

"We've traditionally had some lackluster third quarters," Vaughan said. "We guarded the first three possessions and I think we got three turnovers or steals right away. That right there gave us momentum the rest of the quarter. We always say 'the first two or three minutes out of halftime is going to tell the tale of the second half.' Our first three possessions kind of set the tone for how we finished the game."

The Indians received strong offensive performances from sophomore guard Akeem Nelson and senior guard-forward Kevonte Mitchell.

Nelson hit seven 2's and two treys on his way to a team-high 20 points.

Mitchell hit eight of 10 free throws and hit five two-pointers. He finished with 18 points.

Ellenburg scored Bernie's first 11 points. He finished with a team-high 17 points.

No other player hit more than one field goal for the Mules.

"Their guard pressure was so good we had a hard time getting anything going," Botsch said. "Our guards don't beat people off the dribble very well so we have to run good offense and Kennett kind of runs some different schemes defensively where they will come and trap and run at you. They make your guards really compete and Caleb was about the only one that could get a shot off. It was really ugly for us, but that had everything to do with Kennett.

"We weren't able to get in any offense tonight due to their pressure," Botsch added. "They were overly ready to win a championship. I know coach Vaughan and their program is outstanding. We didn't display much poise. We just got physically and mentally whipped all night long and there is just really no good way to sugar coat this."

Senior guard Antavies Drake scored nine points for the Indians.

Kennett has won the 16-team Bloomfield Christmas Tournament four of the last five seasons and advanced to the championship all five years.

"That's pretty special," Vaughan said of the streak. "I don't care what size schools are in it. What you get in this tournament there are small schools and a mixture of us and Dexter in Class 4. But you get teams, coaches and atmosphere that is competitive. Winning this is still a good accomplishment for us regardless of who you are playing in it. Obviously, you've got to come and play every night.

"South Pemiscot gave us a really good game Saturday night," Vaughan added. "I really, really think that helped boost us and kind of worked our kids up a little bit going into tonight. We really came to play tonight and winning it again is always going to be special."

No. 4 seeded South Pemiscot beat No. 2 seeded Hayti 77-69 in the third-place game. No. 6 seeded Twin Rivers beat No. 12 seeded Bloomfield 58-50 in the fifth-place game. No. 14 seeded Puxico beat No. 5 seeded Saxony Lutheran 67-54 in the consolation championship.

12 players were named to the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament all-tournament team.

The all-tournament team representatives are: Eric Ray from Twin Rivers, Noah Vandiver from Bloomfield, Jack Lake from Saxony Lutheran, Ryan Reeves from Holcomb, Demetrius Luster from Hayti, Frankie Burden Jr. from Hayti, Jacob Trammel from South Pemiscot, Anthony Primer from South Pemiscot, B.J. Jennings from Bernie, Caleb Ellenburg from Bernie, Antavies Drake from Kennett and Kevonte Mitchell from Kennett.

No. 1 Kennett 59, No. 3 Bernie 27

KHS 15 16 19 9 - 59

BHS 6 9 6 6 - 27

KENNETT (59) - Antavies Drake 9, Rantrell Caruthers 4, Akeem Nelson 20, Kevonte Mitchell 18, Andre Oliver 4, Materion Jones 4. FG 23, FT 10/16, F 18. (3-pointers: Drake 1, Nelson 2. Fouled out: none)

BERNIE (27) - Matt Vernon 1, B.J. Jennings 2, Bubby Schwent 3, Joey Walker 4, Caleb Ellenburg 17. FG 11, FT 5/11, F 15. (3-pointer: none. Fouled out: none)