On Saturday, Feb. 17, the Bluffton University Men’s basketball team (11-14, 8-10 HCAC) also played host to the Franklin College Grizzlies (8-17, 7-11 HCAC) on senior day and won with a score of 96-73. With the victory, the men’s team earned the last spot in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference.
Bluffton honored their 2017-18 senior class that consisted of Kevin Christie (Miamisburg/Bishop Fenwick), Andrew Hunter (Arlington), Thad Phillips (South Bend, Ind./Riley) and Austin Buchholz (Holgate).
Leading the charge for Bluffton was sophomore guard Andrew Renner (Cario/Bath) with 27 points and 10 rebounds.
“I mean it was all just working,” said Renner on what was clicking offensively for the team. “Our offense got into a pretty good flow. Everybody was hitting shots, it wasn’t just me, so it was nice.”
Renner is right, everyone was hitting their shots. Andrew Hunter finished with 21 points and seven assists. Kevin Christie tallied 20 points and four assists. Justis Dowdy (Van Wert/Lincolnview) had 10 points coming off of the bench as well.
Not only did the women’s basketball team have a great offensive game, as we saw in the first game, the men’s team shot extremely well, too.
Bluffton shot 50 percent (15-30) from the field and 55.6 percent (5-9) from the 3-point line in the first half.
Offensively, Bluffton came to play, but defensively Bluffton also made their adjustments and showed up.
Head Coach Guy Neal saw the defensive miss-match on Franklin’s big man, John Beineke (Indianapolis, Ind.), and made the decision to play junior transfer Mandell Ransaw (Cleveland/Cuyahoga CC) and sophomore Isaiah Taylor (Yellow Springs) as defensive anchors.
“Well, we just felt as the game unfolded, that those were the two best matchups of all of our post people to guard him,” said Coach Neal on making the switch. “Between those two (Ransaw and Taylor), Aaron Rich, Max Glass, and Justis Dowdy. As the game kind of unfolded, we just felt that they were the two best matchups to rotate guarding him. We kind of felt going into the game that that might be the case and it ended up playing out like that. ”
Beineke, even with Coach Neal making his adjustments, did not go away quietly. He finished the first half with 13 points on 4-7 shooting from the field and he went 5-6 from the charity stripe. In the second half, Beineke finished with 28 points on 8-14 shooting and he tallied seven rebounds.
In the second half for Bluffton, their shooting improved. They went 19-34 (55.9 percent) from the field and 6-11 (54.5 percent) from behind the 3-point line.
“I think it’s just playing unselfish basketball and really getting each other involved,” said Christie on the great offensive performance. “No one really cares who gets the shot, we just the most open shot we get each play and today we were working it really well and our shooters were hitting and we were putting each other in really good circumstances to get each other buckets.”
With the victory in what was essentially Bluffton’s first game of the conference tournament, Bluffton clinches the sixth seed and will travel on Tuesday, Feb. 20 to Hanover, Ind. to take on the #3 seed, the Hanover College Panthers. That game is slated to tip-off at 6 p.m.
