STURGEON - The No. 2 seed New Bloomfield Wildcats outscored the No. 7 Paris Coyotes 42-23 in the second half of Tuesday night's 76-43 first-round romp at the 32nd-annual Sturgeon Tournament.
New Bloomfield (15-2) rebounded strongly after a 65-60 Show-Me Conference home loss to Linn stopped its eight-game winning streak last Friday night. The Wildcats took a 34-20 advantage into halftime Tuesday night and outscored Paris 24-16 in the third quarter to expand their lead to 58-36.
Sophomore forward Jak Kitchens responded with 17 points to steer four players in double figures for New Bloomfield. Senior guard Tyler Fennewald followed with 13 points, senior guard Grant Nichols tallied 11 and senior guard Jacob Brown added 10.
"I thought we did a nice job of pushing the basketball," Wildcats head coach Tim Gilmore said Wednesday afternoon. "We felt, as a coaching staff, that we got away from that over the last two games.
"It was nice to see us get back to it. We also felt the ball never got stuck and we had great ball movement. Having four players in double figures is always a nice sign of that."
New Bloomfield advances to a semifinal clash with No. 3 seed New Franklin at 7:30 tonight in the high school gym. New Franklin extended its winning streak to six games with a 70-55 first-round triumph over No. 6 seed South Callaway on Tuesday night.
"They have some big wins over quality opponents," Gilmore said of New Franklin. "They have some good size on the inside and guards that can shoot it very well. We are going to have to be very disciplined defensively and get hands on the shooters and limit their offensive rebounds.
"It will be a great test for us as we quickly approach district play in three weeks."