For a moment, it appeared Blytheville’s Tony Newmy’s layup was going to give the Chicks a chance to defend their Northeast Arkansas Invitational Tournament title on Tuesday evening. Though the ball found the bottom of the net for what would have been a game-tying bucket against Brookland, Newmy was called for a charge on the play, allowing the Bearcats to keep a two-point lead with 11.4 seconds showing. Simultaneously, the official called a controversial technical foul on the Chickasaw bench, and the Bearcats held on to eliminate Blytheville in the NEA semifinals, 50-44, at First National Bank Arena. “Tony [Newmy] does exactly what he wants to do and gets down in the paint,” Blytheville head coach McKenzie Pierce said. “Get a shot or create something for somebody else, which is what we work on in late game situations, talk about. He does it. 50/50 call at best, whether it’s a block or a charge. Obviously, I’m going to think it’s a block and an and-one but you know that call is what it is. It’s a judgment call and the ref thought was the right call and it is what is.” “But obviously giving a technical foul to a kid on our bench for jumping up, and just jumping up and clapping for his teammate and giving him a technical and taking the game out of our hands is something I’ve never seen,” Pierce continued. “I just thought that was very disappointing, because worst case scenario they call a charge, whatever I don’t agree with it but they call a charge, whatever we are down one. There is 11 seconds. We can foul, they got to make two free throws and then worst case scenario we are down three and get a shot at it. Best case scenario, obviously it’s an and-one we got 10 seconds left to get a stop or they miss free throws… I’ve never seen anything like it and it was so quick, like the ball went through the hoop and he was teeing up our bench and I’ve never seen that and I was disappointed that he made that call.” Brookland’s Douglas Fenimore was fouled and connected on both attempts with 10.4 left in the game; the Bearcats lead by four points. Blytheville drove the ball up the court and passed to Jaquon Fowler for a three-pointer. Fowler appeared to be hit on the shot but there was no call and the shot hit the side of the rim. Bearcat senior guard Dalon Ford knocked down both free throw attempts to end the game at 50-44. The Bearcats got on the board first with a three-pointer by Fenimore at 5:55 mark of the first quarter. The Chickasaws finally got on the scoreboard as senior Jaurous Haynes intercepted a pass and slammed it home to trail 3-2 with 3:45 left in the first. The Bearcats finished the quarter with a 9-2 lead after Braxton Haff connected on the Bearcats third three-pointer in the game with eight seconds left in the period. “We knew that [Brookland] really like to slow the pace down, like one to two minute possessions. They want to eat up as much clock on offense… We talked about if we could get out and get the lead, they were going to have to play,” Pierce said. “ They’re well coached and do a really good job. Even early, it’s just the little things. We got a couple of tough calls and all that but it’s the little things, I preach to the kids about focus. We came in last night, obviously, it was Christmas, didn’t expect a great practice, but it was a terrible practice. Didn’t get anything out of it. Then we had a lackadaisical pregame [Tuesday] and then all that translated obviously into our first quarter.” Blytheville, however, stormed back in the second quarter to outscore the Bearcats by 10 points to lead 21-18 at the half. However, midway through the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter Chickasaw senior guard Treay Jamison was getting looked at by Chickasaw staff; Pierce later mentioned Jamison was suffering from cramps. Jamison returned later in the quarter. “Caught a cramp, he has never caught a cramp in the two years I’ve been here. I don’t know if he ate too much food on Christmas, I don’t know what the deal was,” said Pierce. At the 4:40 mark in the final quarter a Chickasaw pass fell out of bounds which Newmy and Pierce thought was tipped out. The ball remained the Bearcats. Another controversial call came with 3:15 left in the game when Caruthers was being guarded close to the sideline and the ball was knocked out. The referees said Caruthers had stepped out of bounds before being stripped, which gave the Bearcats back the ball. The Chicks led by three points. Haff’s three-pointer tied the game back up at 38 with 2:45 left in the game; however the Chicks quickly answered back as Haynes was found cutting down the baseline and threw down a two-handed slam. Winston Peace’s three-point play with 21.4 seconds left in the game cut the Bearcat lead to one point. Bearcats senior guard Tyler Harrell missed the front end of a one-and-one with 19.1 seconds left in the game. The Chicks dribbled the ball down the court and Newmy drove toward the basket with nearly 12 seconds left before being called for the charge. The Bearcats advanced to the championship game where they fell to the Nettleton Raiders, Wednesday, 47-39. Meanwhile, the Chicks are halfway through the season and Pierce said the team is going to have to get tougher and be better at what the team is supposed to do. “It’s just mental with these guys and whenever they decide to put it all together we will be a problem. But until then you’re flipping quarters and guessing heads or tails. We are a really good team; this team has a lot of heart and a lot of fight in them. I think we are going to have a great second half,” said Pierce.