MOKANE - The No. 4 seed Wildcats couldn't finish off a furious fourth-quarter comeback in falling to the No. 5 Eagles in the first round of the South Callaway Invitational Tournament on Tuesday night.
New Bloomfield (6-7) - which has lost three straight - was down 54-40 to open the fourth quarter, but rallied to pull even at 61-all with 1 minute, 30 seconds to play in the game. Vienna, though, scored the final six points to seal the victory.
Senior guard Jalen Martin connected for a game-high 27 points to pace three players in double figures for the Wildcats. Senior forward Clayton Martin supplied 14 points and senior guard Bailey Crane followed with 11.
"We did a great job of fighting back ," New Bloomfield head coach Tim Gilmore said. "The biggest issue is that we need to learn how to finish a tight game.
"We expended a lot of energy to get it tied up and just made a few costly mistakes down the stretch. We hope to continue to use these tight tournament games as a learning tool for districts."
Caid Stockstill topped the Eagles with 22 points and Logan Agan and Nathan Kleffner chipped in with 15 apiece.
The Wildcats square off against No. 8 seed Calvary Lutheran in the consolation semifinals at 6 tonight in the middle school gym. The Lions were throttled by No. 1 seed Hermann 79-28 in first-round play Tuesday night.