Bloomfield upsets Advance at the Bell 45-43

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - Bloomfield Wildcats freshman Peyton Bell got his favorite shot and made the most of it in the closing seconds of an SCAA quarterfinal against the Advance Hornets Tuesday night.

Bell hit a clutch 3-pointer along the baseline near his own bench as time expired to secure a 45-43 victory against No. 4 seeded Advance and propel the No. 5 seeded Wildcats to the semifinals of the SCAA Tournament.

"They had two people on Noah and left me open in the corner," Bell said. "Nathan put it in a great spot for me to shoot it. When I released it there was nobody around me. It's a huge win for us. We get another shot at Bernie. They beat us pretty bad on their home floor and we are excited we have another shot to beat them, and hopefully win the championship."

The final offensive play was needed after Advance hit a 2-pointer to take a 43-42 lead with seven seconds remaining. Bloomfield pushed the ball the length of the floor and passed it to Bell in the corner for the open look following a timeout .

"Even if they fouled I don't know if we would have changed anything," Bloomfield coach Jason Karnes said of drawing up the final play. "We just wanted to get it to Nathan as quick as we could, get it down the floor, shoot it quick and maybe we could get a tip in at the buzzer if it didn't go in. We had Noah rolling on the backside and Peyton spotted up in the corner. Nathan made a great read and a great pass and Peyton obviously made a great shot."

Advance had two fouls to give before Bloomfield would have earned the opportunity to shoot free throws but was unable to record a foul before Bell hit the game-winner.

"In the timeout we told them to foul," Advance coach Dennis Wheetley said. "We didn't foul. It's my fault and I'll take full responsibility. Maybe I should have been hollering to 'foul, foul.' We had two fouls to give and did not do it."

Bloomfield scored the first seven points to move ahead 7-0 by the 4:34 mark of the first period. The Wildcats lead swelled as large as 22-10 in the second period before Advance trimmed the deficit to 23-20 by halftime.

"They shut down our 3's, which most people are going to try to do," Wheetley said. "It was just a tough game all night long."

Advance never led in the third quarter, but never trailed by more than four.

Bloomfield led 34-32 at the start of the fourth period.

A 2-point field goal by Dawson Mayo put Advance on top 41-40 with 2:12 left. Noah Vandiver followed with a 2-pointer with 36 seconds remaining to give Bloomfield a 42-41 lead before Advance went back on top 43-42.

"This was one of those games we had to constantly make adjustments and change things," Karnes said. "For the most part we did what we wanted to do tonight. Their guards really killed us the last game. We wanted to change that and make them beat us inside. But for the most part we executed what we wanted to execute defensively."

Mayo was the only Advance player to finish in double digits. He scored all 13 of his points after the first period.

"We tried to pound it in there as much as we could to him," Wheetley said. "Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't, but we tried to get it get to him when we saw a mismatch."

Bell tallied all nine of his points on 3-pointers.

"Those were all big shots and I'm really proud of him," Karnes said of his freshman talent Bell. "We have all the confidence in the world in him. We knew if he got an open look he would be ready to shoot it."

Vandiver paced Bloomfield with 12 points. Alex Gibbs added 10 more points for the Wildcats.

Bloomfield hosts defending champion Bernie Thursday at 7 p.m. in a varsity semifinal of the SCAA Tournament.

"I don't know if we can think about anything other than Bernie," Karnes said. "They are obviously as good as everybody says they are and as good as what their record indicates. We will have to play awfully well, but we are going to prepare Wednesday, be ready to compete Thursday and see what happens. But we cannot think about anything other than Bernie right now."

DUSTIN WARD - dward@dailystatesman.com Advance's Dawson Mayo takes a jumper against the Bloomfield defense Tuesday.

No. 5 Bloomfield 45, No. 4 Advance 43

BHS 11 12 11 11 - 45

AHS 6 14 12 11 - 43

BLOOMFIELD (45) - Caleb Pulley 3, Peyton Bell 9, Nathan Newell 3, Austin Bond 4, Tyler Battles 4, Noah Vandiver 12, Alex Gibbs 10. FG 18, FT 4/5, F 15. (3-pointers: Bell 3, Newell 1, Hector 1. Fouled out: none)

ADVANCE (43) - Armani Vermillion 7, Preston Wuebker 6, Brian Whitson 3, Austin Ladd 6, Dalton Wilson 8, Dawson Mayo 13. FG 18, FT 6/11, F 12. (3-pointers: Whitson 1. Fouled out: none)

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THURSDAY'S SCHEDULE

JV Semifinals

No. 1 Bloomfield vs. No. 5 Advance, 4 p.m.

No. 2 Dexter vs. No. 3 Bernie, 5:30 p.m.

Varsity Semifinals

No. 1 Bernie vs. No. 5 Bloomfield, 7 p.m.

No. 2 Woodland vs. No. 3 Dexter, 8:30 p.m.