By RICK SPRUNGER
The Bluffton Tigers came up a little bit short against the Bellmont Braves on Senior Night at Bluffton Friday night.
But Bluffton coach Karl Grau couldn’t say enough about the fight his team put up against a heavily favored Bellmont quintet before succumbing by a 49-37 score.
“I like the way we battled even though we struggled at times,” said Grau. “I was really proud of our fight.”
In the end, it was a 15-0 run in the first half that put Bellmont (12-8) in control at 18-6.
Then, after Bluffton had fought back to within 31-27 and had an opportunity to cut its deficit even further, it was another quick 8-0 Bellmont burst that pretty much put it away at 39-27.
Bluffton (2-17) was never able to get closer than seven points after that, as the teams largely traded baskets in the final eight minutes.
Tucker Jenkins, Bluffton’s 6-2 junior, was the one keeping the Tigers alive, totaling 17 of his game-high 18 points and nine of his 11 rebounds in the first three quarters before Bellmont finally found a way to seal him off.
“He’s been big for us all season,” said Grau of his man in the middle.
Jenkins also got the attention of Bellmont coach Jonathon Fuelling.
“He’s a strong kid, and he’s only a junior,” said an impressed Fuelling afterward.
But Bellmont had a pretty good player of its own in Andrew James.
It was James who sparked that early 15-0 Bellmont breakaway.
He started it by hitting the second of two free throws, then stole the ball and found teammate Jack Scheumann under the basket for an easy deuce.
After a three-pointer by Kord Fuelling gave Bellmont a 9-6 lead that it would never relinquish, James went back to work.
He hit a three-pointer from the right corner just before the clock expired in the first quarter, then opened the second period with another from almost the exact same place.
He then stole the ball again and dropped a third three-pointer from the top of the key for that 18-6 advantage.
But that 12-point margin was actually Bellmont’s biggest of the game.
Bluffton notched it a little tighter on defense and outscored the Braves, 15-7, over the remainder of the first half to climb right back into it.
“The turnovers hurt us early,” said Grau, “but we were able to do a much better job of making it tough for them to get good looks.”
By halftime, the Bellmont lead was down to 25-21. And then early in the third quarter, Eli Garrett grabbed a rebound, threaded his way through traffic, and found Jenkins underneath to knock the lead down to 26-23.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, they missed two shots and committed four more turnovers and so could not draw any closer.
With the score 31-27, Kaden Grau missed a three-point attempt that would have cut the gap to one.
And then Bellmont took off.
Dylan Velez scored on a sharp feed from Scheumann underneath, James drove the lane for another layup, and two more Bluffton turnovers led to two more Bellmont buckets on a jumper in the lane by Scheumann and a Fuelling putback of a Scheumann miss for a 39-27 spread.
Jenkins was the only Bluffton player in double figures.
The Tigers were a solid 14-for-29 from the field for a .483 shooting percentage but took 16 fewer shots than Bellmont due to 21 turnovers.
Bellmont placed three players in double figures, including James with 16, Fuelling with 12, and Scheumann with 11.
The Braves were 18-for-45 from the floor for a .400 percentage and turned the ball over nine times.
Bluffton outrebounded the Braves 24-22.
Bluffton won the junior varsity contest, 52-46.
Nolan Lambert with 16 points and Kaleb Green with 13 led the way for the Tigers.
Jude Baumgartner added nine points, Ben Maggard seven, Declan Grieser five, and Cameron Williams two.
Bluffton also took the C-team game, 43-19.
Trey Bustos scored nine points for Bluffton while Marshall Gerber, Eli Bertsch, and Landon Daniel each scored seven, Griffin Morgan six, Coleson Teeple four, and Owen Lesh three.
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BELLMONT 49,
BLUFFTON 37
at Bluffton High School
BELLMONT (12-8): Andrew James 5-9 3-4 16, Jack Scheumann 5-13 0-0 11, D.J. Kitson 2-4 1-4 5, Kord Fuelling 4-13 1-3 12, Dylan Velez 2-4 1-3 5, Job Hoffman 0-0 0-0 0, Gavin Krull 0-2 0-0 0, Trent Geimer 0-0 0-0 0. TOTAL: 18-45 6-14 49.
BLUFFTON (2-17): Sam Baumgartner 2-4 1-1 6, Hunter Wenger 0-2 0-0 0, Kaden Grau 3-6 0-0 8, A.J. Streveler 2-5 0-0 5, Tucker Jenkins 7-10 2-4 18, Fletcher Wenger 0-0 0-0 0, Eli Garrett 0-1 0-0 0, Hutch Craighead 0-0 0-0 0, Kaleb Green 0-0 0-0 0, Declan Greiser 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Hunt 0-1 0-0 0. TOTAL: 14-29 3-5 37.
Bellmont 12 13 17 7 — 49
Bluffton 6 15 9 7 — 37
Three-point shooting: Bellmont 7-18 (James 3-5, Scheumann 1-4, Fuelling 3-7, Krull 0-2), Bluffton 6-16 (Baumgartner 1-2, H. Wenger 0-1, Grau 2-5, Streveler 1-3, Jenkins 2-3, Garrett 0-1). Rebounds: Bellmont 22 (Velez 9, Fuelling 6), Bluffton 24 (Jenkins 11). Turnovers: Bellmont 9, Bluffton 21. Personal fouls: Bellmont 5, Bluffton 14. Fouled Out: None.
Junior Varsity: Bluffton 52, Bellmont 46.
Freshmen: Bluffton 43, Bellmont 19.
