By RICK SPRUNGER
WABASH — It’s tough to win a game when the other team shoots 60 percent.
But that’s pretty much what Southwood did in an 83-54 regular season-ending win over Bluffton Friday night.
The Knights (10-12) were actually one bucket away from 60 percent, finishing 36-for-61 for a white-hot .590 percentage.
“Well, yeah,” said Bluffton coach Karl Grau after the game, “but that’s because so many of their shots were layups off our turnovers.”
That, too, is true.
Bluffton committed 26 turnovers, most of them of the live-ball variety, that Southwood turned into numerous runouts.
The Tigers didn’t shoot all that bad themselves, connecting on 22 of 46 shots for a solid .479 — but they didn’t shoot enough times due to all of those turnovers.
Southwood scored the first seven points of the game and then played Bluffton on roughly even terms for the rest of the first half, taking a 32-23 lead into the locker room at halftime.
It was still just 42-32 midway through the third quarter after a run of seven straight Bluffton points on a pair of free throws and a baseline jumper by Hunter Wenger, and a three-pointer by Kaden Grau.
But that was when Southwood really began to run away and hide.
Will Winer scored from underneath, then swiped the ball at midcourt and cashed in a pair of free throws.
Grau answered with another three.
But Cole Winer hit a layup, Bryce Wilcox put back an offensive rebound, Lehner got another steal and layup, and Winer buried a three from the corner to make it 54-35 in front of a wound-up Southwood crowd on Senior Night.
Tucker Jenkins silenced the crowd momentarily with another Bluffton three.
But a rebound bucket by Winer to end the period, a Wilcox putback to start the fourth quarter, and yet another steal and layup by Lehner made it 60-38 and had the Knights feeling it.
“I think frustration had a lot to do with it,” said the elder Grau later. “We weren’t making cuts quick enough to get where we needed to be, and guys were getting frustrated and just throwing the ball. Things just snowballed on us, particularly in the second half. We needed to be a little more patient.”
Southwood placed all five starters in double figures.
Cole Winer scored a game-high 22 points, followed by Lehner with 17, Will Winer with 11, and Dylan Stout and Jason Oprisek each with 10.
Jenkins was the only Bluffton player in double figures with 18.
Southwood made it a clean sweep with a 54-37 victory in the junior varsity game and a 45-32 win in the C-team contest.
Bluffton’s jayvees were led by Declan Greiser with 12 points while Kade Abbett, Nolan Lambert, and Ben Maggard each added six, Jordan Fear five, and Cameron Williams two.
The Tiger C-teamers got 10 points from Trey Bustos, eight from Eli Bertsch, six from Marshall Gerber, three apiece from Coleson Teeple and Owen Lesh, and two from Landon Daniel.
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SOUTHWOOD 83, BLUFFTON 54
at Southwood High School
BLUFFTON (2-19): Sam Baumgartner 1-4 0-0 2, Kaden Grau 3-11 0-0 8, A.J. Streveler 3-7 1-2 8, Hunter Wenger 3-8 2-4 8, Tucker Jenkins 8-11 0-2 18, Fletcher Wenger 0-0 0-0 0, Eli Garrett 0-1 0-0 0, Nolan Lambert 0-0 0-0 0, Declan Greiser 2-2 0-0 5, Kaleb Green 1-1 0-0 2, Hutch Craighead 1-1 0-0 3. TOTAL: 22-46 3-8 54.
SOUTHWOOD (10-12): Will Winer 4-7 3-6 11, Nathan Lehner 8-14 1-3 17, Dylan Stout 5-10 0-0 10, Jason Oprisek 5-7 0-1 10, Cole Winer 8-13 2-2 22, Jaret Denney 1-2 0-0 2, Bryce Wilcox 3-6 0-0 6, Caleb Wyatt 1-1 1-2 3, Randy Boone 1-1 0-0 2, Griffin Chambers 0-0 0-0 0. TOTAL: 36-61 7-14 83.
Bluffton 12 11 15 16 — 54
Southwood 19 13 24 27 — 83
Three-point shooting: Bluffton 7-21 (Baumgartner 0-1, Grau 2-8, Streveler 1-5, H. Wenger 0-2, Jenkins 2-2, Garrett 0-1, Grieser 1-1, Craighead 1-1), Southwood 4-15 (Lehner 0-5, Stout 0-1, C. Winer 4-8, Denney 0-1). Rebounds: Bluffton 23 (H. Wenger 6, Jenkins 5), Southwood 29 (Wilcox 9, C. Winer 5). Turnovers: Bluffton 26, Southwood 15. Personal fouls: Bluffton 10, Southwood 7. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None.
Junior Varsity: Southwood 54, Bluffton 37.
C-team: Southwood 45, Bluffton 32.
