Bloomingdale Bulls Fall 59-35 to District Rival Wharton

It only took three quarters for the Wildcats to run the Bulls off the court. To their credit, the Bulls outscored Wharton 15-5 in the fourth quarter but the Wildcats were playing their reserves with the game out of reach. Wharton, on top of a 19-2 run in the third quarter, took a 54-20 lead going into the fourth quarter.

"I'm proud of our guys. We just came off of two tough losses and we were kind of licking our wounds but we came out strong tonight," said Wildcat head coach Tommy Tonelli.

"It was strictly an effort problem from us. We needed to be more aggressive and execute," said Bulls head coach Joe Willis.

Once the reserves were in, the Bulls shook off their funk and got a late-game push from freshman guard/forward Logan Crouse. Senior guard James West led the Bulls in scoring with eight and had some great hustle plays; the Bulls forced eight turnovers. However, the Wildcats were overwhelming with their full-court press and harrying, man defense. Wharton forced 13 Bloomingdale turnovers, most of which turned into layups or free throws on the other end.

"We knew their guards had been having trouble with turnovers. We decided we were going to keep the pressure on them," said Tonelli.

"That (turnovers) has been our Achillie's heel this year," said Willis.

To make matters worse for the Bulls, the Wildcats were perfect at the free throw line, going 11-for-11.

A 19-7 first quarter lead was tempered a little by a 13-11 second quarter. However, senior guard/forward Patrick Hauri nailed a three-pointer off a throw-in with 0.8 seconds left and he was at least five feet behind the three-point stripe.

"It was funny because I was thinking before the game about if I thought I could make a long-range shot like that," said Hauri.

Hauri caught the in-bounds pass, pivoted once and had to turn and just let it fly.

"I actually thought it was going in when I let it go. It looked on target," said Hauri.

In the second half, Bloomingdale earned better looks at the basket but went cold shooting. That's when Wharton ran away with it. Two sets of back-to-back turnovers stretched a 17-point halftime lead to a 34-point lead going into the fourth quarter. Junior guard/forward Tyler Langston came in the fourth and nailed a three-pointer that iced the game despite a 6-0 run by Bloomingdale. Junior guard/forward Sir Patrick Reynolds led the Wildcats in scoring with 12.

With the win, the Wildcats lock up the top seed in District 7.

Bloomingdale still has to grapple with Newsome for the 4th or 5th seed; a team it split the regular season series with.

"We're most likely going to get Newsome in the first round of districts," said Willis. "We feel confident playing them and that we can at least compete in the district."