There will be no repeat champion.
Rock Bridge, the 2011 winner of the Mike Kehoe Great 8 Classic, dropped its first-round matchup in the Joe Machens Great 8 Classic against Louisville (Ky.) Male on Thursday afternoon at Fleming Fieldhouse.
Trailing by 16 points with seven minutes left in the game, Rock Bridge staged a furious rally, only to come up short. The Bruins fell 58-57 to the Bulldogs in the tournament's opening game.
A back-and-forth first period saw Rock Bridge ahead 12-11. The second quarter saw four 3-pointers and zero points any other way.
Jalen Brasher, D.J. Lambert and Josh Stoner hit 3s for the Bulldogs, and Ryan Kreklow scored Rock Bridge's first points of the second quarter on a 3 with :40 left before halftime. That put Louisville Male up 20-15 at intermission.
The Bulldogs went up 38-26 heading into the fourth and scored two quick baskets to go up 16. Rock Bridge gradually whittled the deficit away. Jackson Dubinski nailed a 3 with :03 to go to get the Bruins within a point, but time ran out and Louisville Male held on.
Rock Bridge junior Nick Norton, a guard who has verbally committed to Creighton, accounted for more than half of the Bruins' points. He tossed in a game-high 29 points on 12-of-25 shooting. Kreklow added 12 and Dubinski had 10.
Stoner paced the Bulldogs with 15 points, Steven Julian recorded a double-double with 14 points and 16 rebounds, Brasher tossed in 13 and Lambert had 10.
Rock Bridge (2-5) faces Mexico in the consolation semfinals at 5:30 p.m. today while Louisville Male (8-3) faces Lausanne Collegiate (Memphis, Tenn.) at 8:30 p.m. in the semfinals.
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