No. 7 Bloomfield shocks No. 2 Malden 54-47 in BCT quarterfinal

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - The No. 7 seeded Bloomfield Wildcats collected the only championship quarterfinal upset at the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament Saturday night when it secured a 54-47 victory against the No. 2 seeded Malden Green Wave.

Malden jumped out to a 10-2 lead less than five minutes into the first quarter but Bloomfield quickly responded with a 14-0 run to move ahead 21-12 with 5:50 remaining in the first half

"I think we finally relaxed," Bloomfield coach Jason Karnes said of the spurt. "I think we were amped up and caught in the moment the first few minutes. Once we called a timeout, relaxed and got in our stuff we got a lot more confident.

"Tyler Battles played a great game," Karnes added. "He had about two really good offensive possessions in that stretch."

Malden scored the next seven points after a timeout to cut the deficit to 21-19 and trailed 29-27 at halftime.

Bloomfield standout forward Noah Vandiver recorded half of his 12 2-point field goals in the third period.

The inside dominance helped the Wildcats pad its lead to 44-34 by the 1:34 mark of the third quarter.

"Last night and tonight we ran our sets and the guys did a great job of executing them," Karnes said. "Then [Vandiver] has to go finish them off. He's played tremendous the last two nights because he's really went to the rim and finished well."

Bloomfield's largest lead of the game was 52-41 with 4:42 left in regulation.

Malden got as close as 52-47 with 24 seconds remaining after Bloomfield missed five straight free throws, but never got a shot to tie things up.

Vandiver paced Bloomfield with 27 points.

Tyler Battles tallied all 14 of his points for the Wildcats before halftime.

"We've got guys who can make shots and get to the hole," Karnes said. "If we will just stay aggressive and play our game we feel we can be successful."

Cortez Dobbins paced Malden with 18 points. Trevor Ison added 11 more and Alejandro Gordon tallied eight points for the Green Wave.

"It was just a total team effort," Karnes said. "We played three or four different defenses. We did a really good job of mixing it up and executing all our sets and that's what it was going to take . . . We rebounded on the defensive end tremendously and that's what you've got to do against them to be successful."

Bloomfield takes on No. 3 seeded Kennett Monday at 8:30 p.m.

No. 7 Bloomfield 54, No. 2 Malden 47

BHS 13 16 17 8 - 54

MHS 12 15 10 10 -- 47

BLOOMFIELD (54) -- Cameron Pulley 3, Peyton Bell 3, Nathan Newell 3, Tyler Battles 14, Noah Vandiver 27, Alex Gibbs 4. FG 20, FT 11/21, F 16. (3-pointers: Hector 1, Bell 1, Battles 1. Fouled out: none)

MALDEN (47) -- Alejandro Gordon 8, Shaeen Perkins 5, Cortez Dobbins 18, Shamaudre Barber 2, Orlandis Farr 3, Trevor Ison 11. FG 16, FT 9/11, F 23. (3-pointers: Gordon 2, Perkins 1, Dobbins 1, Farr 1, Ison 1. Fouled out: Dobbins, Barber)