STURGEON, Mo. - New Bloomfield put together a better showing on defense than its previous meeting with the state-ranked Eugene Eagles, but the Wildcats were too skittish at the offensive end to pull off an upset.
No. 5 seed New Bloomfield committed 11 of its 18 turnovers in the first quarter and shot just 32 percent (18-of-56) from the field as the Wildcats' season ended in a 62-46 loss to top-seeded Eugene in the semifinals of the Class 2, District 8 Tournament on Thursday night.
"You could tell by the way they (players) were holding the basketball, they were shaken and nervous with it," New Bloomfield head coach Tim Gilmore said. "Once we settled down, I thought we did a great job.
"I thought we played hard defensively. They (Eagles) are an outstanding team that shoots the basketball well and scores really well. I think the biggest thing is we're crazy-young. We have a lot of sophomores and juniors, we have no seniors on the team, and I think nerves got to us."
Gilmore believes his squad's familiarity with Eugene benefitted it from a defensive standpoint Thursday night. The Wildcats (16-11) lost to the Eagles in a 92-64 Show-Me Conference rampage on Feb. 3 in New Bloomfield.
"A lot of it is probably because of the scouting report - since we played them once, we kind of knew who their players are," Gilmore said said. "We played them man-(to-man) for the most part in the first game. We switched to a 3-2 zone from the second quarter on tonight."
Eugene (21-6) - ranked No. 10 in the state - opened the game with a 13-4 run, capped off by a layup from junior forward Austin Dickey with 3 minutes, 22 seconds left in the quarter. The Eagles owned a 19-8 advantage at the end of the period and then outscored the Wildcats 13-6 in the second quarter, increasing their lead to 32-14 at halftime.
New Bloomfield looked like it was starting to find a rhythm on offense in the third quarter, opening with an 11-4 run to cut its deficit to 36-25 at the 4:41 mark. The Wildcats edged Eugene 17-16 in the period, but still trailed 46-31 heading to the fourth quarter.
"We got into halftime, I looked at these guys and said, 'You have no pressure, just go play - relax and play basketball,'" Gilmore said. "Then we came out and outscored them in the third quarter. I think a lot of it was calming down and this being a lot of these guys' first experience in a big game, since it's a district game.
"I think they were thinking too much in the first half and just played ball in the second half."
Junior forward Jak Kitchens paced New Bloomfield with 18 points.
Junior guard Austin Engelbrecht directed the Eagles - who shot 44 percent (22-of-50) as a team - with a game-high 19 points. Junior guard Jacob Adrian tallied 12 points and Dickey added 11.
With the entire New Bloomfield roster expected to return next year, Gilmore had every reason to be optimistic.
"I think the biggest thing we learned was don't take anything for granted," Gilmore said. "Like in the South Callaway game, we would get up early and take the lead for granted."
"Sometimes that's what you do as younger players, whereas seniors don't take anything for granted. They always talk about their last trip here or last trip there. I think these guys will learn from that this year to never take a possession off and never take a game lightly."
Eugene will play No. 2 seed Harrisburg (19-8) for the District 8 championship at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Bulldogs pounded No. 3 seed Fayette 75-52 in Thursday night's second semifinal.