Bloomfield escapes with win over Dexter

BLOOMFIELD (SMNS) -- The Dexter Bearcats varsity boys basketball team recorded more 3-point field goals than 2-pointers Tuesday night but was unable to connect from downtown after falling behind the Bloomfield Wildcats by three points in the final minute of regulation.

Dexter missed both of the 3-pointers it attempted in the final 45 seconds allowing Bloomfield to escape with a 44-41 conference victory.

"I thought we competed for four quarters a little bit better tonight than what we have the last couple of games," Bloomfield coach Jason Karnes said. "Our guys came together and got stops and rebounds late, which was huge."

Dexter trailed 42-38 with 2:37 remaining.

D.J. Dowdy hit a 3-pointer with 2:23 left to account for the Bearcats' final points.

A 2-pointer by Bloomfield's Noah Vandiver in the paint with 1:58 remaining set the final score.

Dexter's Ethan Flowers missed a 3-pointer with 45 seconds left. Bloomfield obtained possession of the ball after the miss and was fouled five times in an eight-second stretch because Dexter had only committed two team fouls in the second half. After Dexter reached seven team fouls Tyler Battles missed the front end of a one-and-one with 26 seconds left.

The Bearcats moved the ball to halfcourt and called a timeout with 15 seconds remaining still trailing 44-41. After the timeout Dowdy missed a contested 3-point shot a few feet to the left of the top of the key with about five seconds remaining and the Wildcats secured the rebound.

The clock ran out before Dexter had another opportunity to foul.

"It was probably a fun game to watch, I guess," Dexter coach Rob Nichols said. "Defensively, I thought we were fine. You are going to win a lot of games only giving up 44 points, but you are not going to win very many scoring 41. I cannot fault our kids' effort, but we just didn't make a lot of shots. We did not shoot the ball very well and most of the shots we took I'm not opposed to our kids taking. We just weren't hitting tonight."

Neither team led by more than five points throughout the closely contested affair. Dexter's largest lead was three once in the first quarter and again with seven minutes remaining in regulation. Bloomfield's largest lead was 33-28 with 1:33 left in the third quarter.

Dexter went on a 6-0 run after Bloomfield built its largest lead to move back ahead 34-33 at the start of the fourth quarter.

Vandiver dominated in the paint. He had 10 two-pointers, a trey and made two free throws. He scored 16 points in the first half and nine more in the second half on his way to a game-high 25 points.

"We needed to know where he was and I think we did a good job of it, but it really hurt us when they broke us down on the baseline," Nichols said. "[Vandiver] would slice from the high post and got some easy looks doing that."

Flowers led Dexter in scoring with 10 points.

DEXTER (41) - Noah Kronk 2, D.J. Dowdy 8, Peyton Pollock 6, Austin Chesser 8, Ethan Flowers 10, Chandler Young 2, Cole Renken 5. FG 15, FT 3/6, F 10. (3-pointers: Dowdy 2, Pollock 2, Chesser 2, Flowers 2. Fouled out: none)

BLOOMFIELD (44) - Nathan Newell 8, Caleb Pulley 1, Tim Fox 6, Tyler Battles 2, Noah Vandiver 25, Triston Mitchell 2. FG 19, FT 3/6, F 7. (3-pointers: Fox 2, Vandiver 1. Fouled out: none)