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South Pemiscot takes down Bernie for their first district title in 7 years
BLOOMFIELD -- It's been seven years since South Pemiscot's three-year reign as district champions ended.
In that time, Bernie and Hayti have taken over as powerhouses combining to win each of the last six Class 2, District 1 titles.
On Friday the Bulldogs put themselves back on top, taking down reigning champion Bernie with a 63-36 win that was highlighted by a brilliant second half.
"Our kids are just very excited," South Pemiscot head coach Aaron Bidewell said. "We have a group that I'm so blessed with. I had a group that bought in from day one. I was telling them before the game started our first open gym I bet we had 40 kids. Now we had to kick 20 of them out of there, but our first open gym they were just eager and hungry from the word go. To be honest with you I'm just blessed with fantastic kids."
Last season it was the Mules taking down the Bulldogs in a close title game, 48-45.
After two quarters of play, another one-possession finish looked more than possible as South Pemiscot squeaked out a 22-21 advantage entering the locker room.
Whatever adjustments the Bulldogs made in the locker room seemed to work as they started the third quarter and were lights out the rest of the way.
After a Bernie 3-pointer by B.J. Jennings early in the third tied things up, 24-24, South Pemiscot responded by holding the Mules to a single field goal the final six minutes of the quarter.
A basket by Contrell Johnson with 5:26 left in the period put the Bulldogs on top for good and Jacob Trammel followed up with his first of three 3-pointers on the night. South Pemiscot closed the quarter on a 12-4 run to take their biggest lead up to that point into the fourth, 36-27.
"I think we were a little nervous coming out of the gate," Bidewell said of a slow first half. "Bernie is such a great program and coached by two of the best coaches in the state. I think we were a little nervous just to play against those guys because they're such a high quality opponent. When we came out (after the half) a couple of our shooters settled down a little bit and were able to knock some shots for us."
Starting the fourth, Anthony Primer hit a bucket in the first 30 seconds to start an avalanche where his team knocked down eight straight shots and 9 of their first 11.
This run was capped when Trammel and Johnson combined to hit three straight 3-pointers in under a minute to extend their team's lead from 14 points to 23, at 57-34, with 2:42 to play.
In all, South Pemiscot outscored the Mules 41-15 in the second half while shooting 16 of 27 (59.3 percent) from the field, compared to Bernie's 5 of 24 (20.8 percent) effort in the same time period.
Many of the Mules' misses in the fourth quarter, where they shot 3 of 13, came from 3-point range. They were forced to take more chances as they tried to play catchup.
"Coming into tonight I thought one of the biggest keys was toughness," Mules' head coach Brad Botsch said. "I thought they really out-toughed us on both ends of the floor. They hurt us on the glass, they got the loose balls and for us to compete with a really talented team like that we have to do a lot of things right.
"They hit some shots in the second half and we struggled. That's directly due to their defensive prowess."
South Pemiscot finished the contest shooting 26 of 48 (54.2 percent) from the floor and were led by Primer's 15 points. The senior scored nine points in the first quarter before putting up his final six in the fourth.
Johnson had 14 points, including a pair of 3-pointers while Logan Carter and Trammel finished with 10 points each. All but one of Trammel's points came from behind the arc as he connected on a team-high three 3-pointers.
"I feel really blessed to have a home base that followed us well tonight," Bidewell said. "It's an hour-and-a-half drive and so it was tough on a Friday night for people to come out here, but they were really excited for our kids. They have cousins, uncles, girlfriends and everything else in the stands. Once they got them excited about it they kind of fed off it."
For Bernie, who shot 13 of 42 (31 percent) from the field, Jennings had 15 points with Bubby Schwent adding eight points to his team's cause.
"I told the kids to play free and to try and attack and go at them," Botsch said. "We did a decent job of that in the first half, but we missed a lot of shots in the second half that sometimes we make.
"You really have to give (South Pemiscot) some credit. It was just their night."
The loss ends a stretch where the Mules had grabbed the district crown in three of the last six seasons.
South Pemiscot moves on to sectionals where they'll play Thayer at Three Rivers College in Poplar Bluff on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
| Bernie | 12 | 9 | 6 | 9 | -- | 36 |
| South Pemiscot | 16 | 6 | 14 | 27 | -- | 63 |
BERNIE (36) -- Matt Vernon 3, Jacob Wagner 3, B.J. Jennings 15, Justin Stanfield 1, JR Pregel 2, Bubby Schwent 8, Joey Walker 4. FG 13, FT 7-13, F 12. (3-pointers: Vernon 1, Wagner 1, Jennings 1. Fouled out: none.)
SOUTH PEMISCOT (63) -- Jarvis Johnson 5, Anthony Primer 15, Jacob Trammel 10, Glen Jackson 6, Anton Wilbourn 3, Logan Carter 10, Contrell Johnson 14. FG 26, FT 5-8, F 16. (3-pointers: Johnson 1, Trammel 3, Johnson 1. Fouled out: none.)