BOWLING GREEN - The No. 7 seed North Callaway Thunderbirds were outscored by the No. 2 Louisiana Bulldogs 38-29 in the second half of Tuesday night's 61-53 first-round loss at the 90th-annual Bowling Green Tournament.
North Callaway carried a narrow 24-23 edge into the break, but Louisiana outscored the Thunderbirds 16-12 in the third quarter to take a 35-30 lead. The Bulldogs secured the victory by outscoring North Callaway 26-23 in the fourth quarter.
Junior guard Braden Shramek connected on four 3-pointers to finish with a team-high 12 points for the Thunderbirds (4-12), who were plagued by 24 turnovers. Senior guard Brandon Hagedorn also supplied 11 points and handed out a career-high nine assists. Senior forward Michael Pezold collected a team-high five rebounds.
"Louisiana has a good ballclub and some really good athletes, and is a lot quicker than we are," North Callaway head coach Matt Thomas said. "I was very proud of the way the team played overall, especially on defense."
Kendon Chatman sparked the Bulldogs (14-3) with a game-high 18 points and Abricion Ivey tallied 13.
The Thunderbirds will face No. 6 seed Van-Far in the consolation-bracket semifinals at 7 tonight in the middle school gym. The Indians were manhandled by No. 3 seed Clopton 62-40 in a first-round matchup Tuesday night.
North Callaway will be looking to avenge an 81-74 double-overtime loss to Van-Far in Eastern Missouri Conference play Dec. 16 in Kingdom City.