MOKANE, Mo. - The No. 4 seed South Callaway Bulldogs combined to outscore the No. 5 New Haven Shamrocks 40-12 in the first and fourth quarters of Tuesday night's first-round rampage at the South Callaway Tournament.
South Callaway (2-9) fell to top-seeded Hermann 52-41 in the semifinals Wednesday night. Further details were not immediately available. The Bulldogs had just lost to the Bearcats 62-54 last Friday night at Hermann.
South Callaway jumped out to a 21-10 lead over New Haven after one quarter Tuesday night, but the Shamrocks closed within 27-20 at halftime and narrowed the gap to 39-34 entering the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs, though, overpowered New Haven by outscoring it 19-2 over the last 8 minutes to pull away for the convincing victory.
"The game tightened up as we struggled to score in the second and third quarters," South Callaway head coach Tony Brandt said. "We were able to lock in defensively in the fourth and rebounded the ball well to hold them to two points in the quarter."
Junior guard Kaden Helsel logged a game-high 27 points to guide the Bulldogs, while junior guard Dylan Lepper knocked down five 3-pointers in tallying 16 points.
"We have not been shooting the ball well from the perimeter this season, but we got hot in the first quarter by hitting five 3s (four from Lepper, one by Helsel)," Brandt said. "It was one of our best offensive quarters of the year.
"It was good to see our guys gain some confidence. We have been playing well, but were just not able to get over the hump in the W column lately."
Brady Kruse led New Haven with 10 points.
South Callaway will play the loser of Wednesday night's late semifinal between No. 2 seed Montgomery County and No. 3 New Bloomfield for third place at 5:30 p.m. today in the high school.