Bell City turns back Thayer for trip to 1A quarterfinal

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- When you're on a roll, stingy defenses and foul problems to your star player are merely nuisances.

The Bell City Cubs are one of the hottest teams in Class 1A, and demonstrated that Wednesday night with a 77-69 victory over Thayer in the sectional round at Poplar Bluff High School.

Overcoming foul trouble to all-state guard Eric Henry, the Cubs are one of only eight teams remaining in the 1A playoffs. They're one game away from their first final four berth since 1981.

Bell City will face Crocker (25-5) at 8:15 p.m. Saturday night at West Plains, Mo., for the right to go to Columbia, Mo.

Bell City (26-5) not only overcame the absence of Henry for half of the second half, but they easily eclipsed Thayer's season-high for points allowed, which stood at 61 going into the game. Thayer (26-4), which employs a zone defense, came into the game giving up 45 points on average.

"I think our kids took a little bit of pride in that," Bell City coach David Heeb said. "They play good defense and hold people down, but we like to score. We think we can score with the best of them.

"When we heard how many points they were allowing a game, I think we made that an unofficial reason to come over here and put some points on them."

The Cubs managed to make an impression.

"We were 26-3 coming into tonight and they're as good as we've seen," Thayer coach Cliff Hawkins said.

Just like in many games late in the season, Bell City never trailed. Henry scored 15 of his 22 points in the first half, which ended with Bell City leading 34-29.

C.J. Hadley then almost made it a personal mission to end Thayer's season in the opening minutes of the second half. Hadley scored the first 11 points of the half as Bell City opened with a 13-0 run for a 47-29 lead.

"We just came out hot and brought it to them," said Hadley, who scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half.

Hadley scored on short jumpers, his own rebounds and even on a 3-pointer.

"He was amazing in the third quarter," Heeb said of his 6-foot-4 center.

Henry scored the final points of the spurt with a pair of free throws at the 5:03 mark.

"You get behind this bunch here and you just can't catch up," Hawkins said. "You can't play their game.

"We got behind the third quarter and that's just not our style."

The Cubs would need the security of a big lead when Henry picked up his fourth foul a minute later with Bell City leading 47-33.

"We've been in a situation like that a lot," Hadley said. "Usually I foul out and Eric will still be in. We just step up."

With Henry on the bench, Thayer closed to 56-44 at the end of the third quarter on a Jonathan Smith 3-pointer and then scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to move within 56-48.

"We tried to give them the dagger a lot of times in the game, but we just couldn't get it," Henry said. "They kept fighting back."

But Hadley and Dominitrix Johnson, who finished with 20 points, scored Bell City's next 10 points and allowed Henry to return to the game with his team leading 68-55.

Thayer got as close as 72-65 with 1:54 left, but saw the Cubs pull away on free throws down the stretch.

Josh Eubank led Thayer with a game-high 25 points and Jonathan Smith scored 22 before fouling out in the final minute.

jbreer@semissourian.com

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