Jerry Jarrell photo Bell City's Nick Niemczyk (No. 3) comes up with a steal against Bloomfield's Jacob Conner (No. 32) during semifinal action at the SCAA tournament in Bloomfield Thursday. Bell City defeated Bloomfield 81-71 to advance to the championship game against Puxico, a 65-52 winner over Bernie.

BLOOMFIELD - Bell City earned a shot at a third straight SCAA tournament title and Puxico earned a second shot at the Cubs as the varsity's top two seeds advanced to tonight's championship game at Bloomfield.

Top-seeded Bell City staved off a valiant effort by No. 4 Bloomfield in a thrilling 81-71 win, while No. 2 Puxico avenged an earlier regular-season loss to No. 6 Bernie with a 65-52 victory Thursday night.

The top two seeds also advanced in the junior varsity bracket as No. 1 Dexter downed No. 5 Advance, 61-41, and No. 2 Bell City held off No. 3 Bloomfield, 51-42.

Tonight's schedule will tip-off with the third-place junior varsity game between Advance and Bloomfield at 4 p. m., followed by the third-place varsity game between Bloomfield and Bernie at 5:30. Championship games will start with jayvee action at 7 p. m. between Dexter and Bell City, with the varsity's title game between Bell City and Puxico to follow.

Varsity

Bell City 81,

Bloomfield 71

Senior Nick Niemczyk scored 36 points and Bell City overcame a one-point halftime deficit to advance to the championship game and a chance to make it three-straight SCAA tournament titles.

Trailing 25-24 at the half, Bell City showed why they are one of the elite teams in Southeast Missouri as the Cubs exploded for 31 third-quarter points to race past the Wildcats, 55-38.

Bloomfield made a couple of runs at the Cubs in the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit to nine points, but they couldn't overcome Bell City's fire power.

Bloomfield's Kyle Williamson, who scored 29 points, and Niemczyk, energized the crowd at the start of the third period with four consecutive 3-pointers on four shots. Williamson knocked down the first to start the electrifying exchange that left Bloomfield clinging to its one-point lead, 41-40.

Bell City would go on to drop in six 3-pointers in the period, three by Ethan Watkins and one by Austin Bush to take charge of the game.

"We're a second half team," Bell City coach Brain Brandtner said after the game. "We're not going to go out and blow out anybody in the first half, especially against a team like Bloomfield that was playing as well as they were tonight (Thursday).

"We really rely on wearing people down and taking over in the second half, and that has kind of been our blueprint," Brandtner added. "They (Bloomfield) gave us all we wanted and everything we could handle and we're lucky to get away with a win."

Bloomfield fell behind 22-15 after the first quarter and it looked like the Cubs would waltz into the finals. But the Wildcats caught fire in the second period with a 20-12 advantage to forge the one-point halftime lead.

In the third period, Bloomfield weathered the early onslaught and trailed by just one, 44-42, when Brandtner was called for a bench technical when moved onto the court to protest what he thought was a foul on a ally-op play to Phillip Gross.

Bloomfield could only manage one point on the two free throw attempts and ball possession and that's when things began to swing Bell City's way.

"I wasn't trying to get that one," Brandtner said of the technical. "He (the referee) wasn't happy with my positioning on the floor, and I got the technical. I wasn't really trying to get one there, and I don't know if that's what sparked us. Like I said the second half is where we want to do it, maybe that's what jump-started us, I don't know. But whatever, I'll take credit for it."

Niemczyk wasn't the only Bell City player to have an impact on the outcome.

Gross finished with 18 points that included two dunks. Watkins finished with 14 points and four 3-pointers.

"Obviously we've got Nick Niemczyk and everyone knows about him, but we've got a lot of other guys that play for us," said Brandtner. "And we need other guys to step up for us."

The Cubs will be facing a Puxico team that gave the Cubs a scare only a couple of weeks ago in a game that went to overtime.

"It was a battle, just a couple of weeks ago," Brandtner said of the rematch. "Coach (Josh) Dowdy is doing a great job with Puxico and I thought they handled a very good Bernie team tonight (Thursday) with relative ease. We've got our hands full tomorrow night. We're going to give them everything we've got, and hopefully it will be enough."

Puxico 5, Bernie 52

Bernie stumbled out of the gate and never recovered as Puxico again got balanced scoring with four players in double figures to advance to the title game and a second chance against the state-ranked Bell City Cubs.

"We really struggled to find consistent play on both ends of the floor tonight (Thursday), Bernie coach Brad Botsch said. "They (Puxico) played four consistent quarters of basketball and we played two and that's really the difference in the game. The bottom line is that they simply wanted it worse than we did and got the job done.

"After we got in the hole early on, we really had to fight and claw to try and get back in it, Botsch continued. "Puxico is not a team you want to fall behind to and we had to gamble some defensively as the game went on to try and get them out of their offense, and they got some easy buckets out of our traps."

Puxico bolted to an 8-2 lead and moved the advantage to 17-8 after the first quarter. Bernie battled back to make it a 32-28 game at the half, but the Indians limited the Mules to just six third quarter points to take control of the game.

This sequel had a different come that the original.

"After we got pounded down at Bernie the other night we came back and really redeemed ourselves, turned it around from a 19-point loss to beating them by what? Thirteen," Puxico coach Josh Dowdy said. "The kids just showed a lot of heart. We were real hungry after that loss. Needless to say, we're going to be ready Friday night for Bell City.

"We played them fairly close (earlier) and felt like we let one slip through our hands," Dowdy added. "I know Bell City will be ready. I just hope our kids are up to the challenge."

David Crain led Puxico offensively with 22 points, followed by Matt Allison with 14, John Smith with 12 and Kerry McClure added 10.

Bernie got 14 points from Silas Dill and 10 from Jake Owens. The Mules' best offensive weapon was the 3-point shot, connecting on seven for the game.

"We've got to find a way to improve on the things that we're struggling with and get more consistent play from everyone," Botsch noted. "We've sure got a tough one Friday night as well as Bloomfield is a very solid team."

Junior Varsity

Dexter 61, Advance 41

Dexter's jayvee Bearcats advanced to the tournament's championship game for the 12th time in 12 years. The 'Cats won 10-straight jayvee titles from 1997 to 2006 before they were upset last year by Richland.

The time around the opponent will be Bell City.

Dexter got 18 points from Brandon Stoker, 16 from Gary Summers, including three 3-pointers, and 10 from Jon Bowman in the win against Advance.

Dexter built a 16-11 first quarter lead, then took control as the 'Cats limited the Hornets to just seven points for a 33-18 lead at the half.

Advance didn't have a player in double figures, but Matt Ware and Dylan Dunivan each netted nine and Luke Steil added eight.

Bell City 51, Bloomfield 42

Bell City continued to mow down the competition behind an aggressive defense and balanced scoring.

Bloomfield got a game-high 19 points from Dylan Ferguson, but they could overcome four Cubs scoring in double figures.

The jayvee Cubs were led by 7'1" Skylor Blackler with 13 points, Jeff Long with 12, Jason Hess with 11 and Leonard Schaefer's 10.

Bell City turned a 12-9 first quarter advantage into an 11-point advantage with a 21-7 edge in second period scoring.

Bloomfield will take on Advance in the third-place jayvee game.