TIPTON - Nathan Kleffner tallied a game-high 15 points to pace No. 5 seed Vienna to a 55-36 victory over the No. 6 New Bloomfield Wildcats in the fifth-place game of the Tipton Tournament on Friday night.
New Bloomfield (1-4) trailed 12-6 after one quarter and was down 27-16 at halftime. Vienna then outscored the Wildcats 14-8 in the third quarter to widen its lead to 41-24.
Junior guard Keaton Herron topped the Wildcats with 13 points and sophomore guard Trevor Jordan followed with 10.
"We competed and played hard, but missed too many shots from close range," New Bloomfield head coach Jeff Belt said. "Hats off to Vienna - they played really tough, man-to-man defense."
Trey Snodgrass added 12 points for Vienna.
Ignited by Herron's 37-point outburst, the Wildcats were coming off their first win of the season in a 72-68 triumph over No. 7 seed Russellville in the consolation semifinals late Thursday night.
New Bloomfield jumped out to a 25-14 lead after one quarter and carried a 42-39 advantage into halftime. The Wildcats were in front 62-52 entering the fourth quarter and preserved the victory despite being outscored by the Indians 16-10 over the last 8 minutes.
Jordan supplied 15 points despite fouling out in the third quarter and senior center Easton Ambler chipped in with 11 for New Bloomfield.
"We were able to put four good quarters together and implement some aspects of the game we had worked on in practice the (Wednesday) night before," Belt said. "We had good, balanced scoring and it was a good team effort."
Jesse Daniel connected on seven 3-pointers to guide Russellville with 21 points. Chris Seaver was next with 17 points.
The Wildcats start Show-Me Conference play at Fatima at 6 p.m. Tuesday.