LINN, Mo. - New Bloomfield couldn't recover from a 13-point halftime deficit and remained winless in the Show-Me Conference after Friday night's 53-48 loss to Linn in a clash between Wildcats.
New Bloomfield - which has dropped three of its last four - found itself down 14-6 after one quarter and was behind 28-15 at the break. New Bloomfield (9-7, 0-4 SMC) still trailed 44-33 heading to the fourth quarter and was unable to rally despite outscoring Linn 15-9 over the final 8 minutes.
"We got off to such a slow start. We've been talking a lot about consistency and we've been struggling to get that," New Bloomfield head coach Tim Gilmore said. "We ran our offense pretty decent (in first half) and got a lot of good looks, but we struggled to make layups.
"I felt like we were kind of pressing."
Junior forward Jak Kitchens connected for a game-high 23 points to lead New Bloomfield. Sophomore guard Andrew Powell tallied 14 points.
Kyle Deeken answered with 11 points to direct Linn and Nick Nenninger finished with 10.
"We talked about defensive effort at halftime," Gilmore said. "I felt like we gave up some easy layups, where we should have been sprinting back (in transition)."
New Bloomfield is the third seed for this week's 33rd-annual Sturgeon Tournament and will get its third crack at No. 6 South Callaway in the first round at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The game will be played in the high school gym.
The Wildcats bowed to South Callaway 62-55 in SMC play Dec. 9 at New Bloomfield. The Bulldogs then hammered New Bloomfield 69-35 for third place at the South Callaway Tournament on Jan. 12.
"We have to be able to handle their defensive pressure," Gilmore said. "(South Callaway head coach) Tony's (Brandt) kids play crazy-hard. We have to match and exceed their energy."