By RYAN WALKER
PONETO — Bluffton got its revenge against Southern Wells in a Friday night boys’ basketball clash between the two Wells County rivals.
The Tigers got a 43-22 win in a defensive battle just one day shy of when the Raiders earned a 5-point win at the Tiger Den last season.
Bluffton (3-1, 2-0 ACAC) executed its offensive gameplan by feeding big man Tucker Jenkins in the post. The 6’3” forward had a game-high 18 points on 9-12 from the field and tallied 12 rebounds.
The senior is two inches taller than anyone listed on the Raiders’ roster and dominated near the glass all night.
“(Jenkins) is a bad combination for his opponents,” Southern Wells head coach Joel Roush admitted after the game. “He’s physical, he’s athletic and he’s skilled. That’s a bad combination for us, and he is really hard for us to deal with.”
Jenkins made three shots in each of the first three quarters and always hit his first one within the first minute or so. His presence on the block was much needed — outside of him, the Tigers shot 34 percent and turned the ball over 12 times.
The score was only 11-5 by the end of the first quarter, as the Raiders were desperately hanging on to Andrew Akers’ three-pointer to hold them within a manageable distance. But what gave Bluffton its spark wasn’t exactly expected.
Just 26 seconds into the second quarter, Hunter Wenger checked in the game. However, the official scorekeeper called over a Bluffton assistant coach and a referee to ask about Wenger’s uniform number, which was No. 12.
The scorebook appeared to have him as No. 10. The No. 2 did not have its tail drawn all the way and therefore looked like a 0.
The result was a technical foul issued to Bluffton for the error and gave Chandler Oswalt two free throws and he made them both.
Bluffton head coach Craig Teagle said that the scorebook keeper read it wrong.
“But it was 12 in my book,” Teagle said. “She read it wrong. So, we somehow got punished because the home book wrote it in there different.”
The intensity of the game on both sides turned up a notch. A few more fouls were called and a handful of turnovers ensuded, but the Tigers got the best of the call in the end with back-to-back runs after the technical was issued, the first at 6-0 and the second 7-0. They outscored Southern Wells 13-1 in that timespan.
“The kids got fired up about that,” Teagle said. “They got upset when that happened. It shouldn’t have to, you should be ready to go. When we talked to them as (the free throw) was being shot, then you could see it in their eyes that they were pretty fired up about it.”
In the full 32 minutes, Bluffton was the top dog on defense.
Teagle’s squad suffocated Southern Wells to an ice-cold 6-36 on the night for 16 percent. That total is 22 percentage points lower than the Raiders’ average.
In last year’s game, Chandler Oswalt dropped 19 points in the Raiders’ victory, and this season leads the team with 14.3 points per contest. Friday night, he went 1-12 and with six points.
“(Our) game plan was trying to take (Oswalt) out of it and not let him get a lot of shots,” Teagle said. “He had 19 points against us last year. He’d been their leading scorer and I thought for the most part we did a good job. We lost him two or three times. We were fortunate that he didn’t hit a couple of those threes when he was open.”
Roush agreed with Teagle’s assessment, but wasn’t happy with his own team for missing some easy looks.
“Bluffton, first of all, is always in the right position,” Roush said. “They’re physical. They’re active. They’re good defensively. I thought that we handled them pretty well, we just couldn’t get the ball in the basket. We were 7-40. We’re taking shots that we generally make. Maybe other than a couple, I thought we took good shots, and you just have to live with that. If you take good shots, and they don’t go in … I think we missed five, six or seven what we call 100 percenters that just got to go into the basket.”
Teagle wasn’t entirely pleased with his defense, though.
As much as his team stopped their leading scorer and stuffed them for 22 points, Perrin Gates had himself a night on the glass, too.
The senior forward, two inches shorter than Jenkins and four shorter than forward Kaleb Green, led the Raiders with a team- and season-high 10 points and 12 rebounds. Gates had only averaged three points and six rebounds per night.
“We didn’t do a good job on (Gates) at all,” Teagle said. “He had eight (offensive rebounds) and scored 10 points. We’ve got to do a much better job than that. But again, in saying that to his credit, he was crashing the boards and doing the things he needed to do.”
“He is my most conscientious player,” Roush said. “He’s always in the right position. He’s undersized but he fights like crazy down there, and you can’t ask more of a kid than all he can give, and he gives it to us. He really does a great job.”
Bluffton’s Axton Beste finished the game with nine points on 3-6 shooting and a free throw to go with four rebounds.
Bluffton won the junior varsity game 27-12 in two quarters. Bluffton’s top scorer was Ben Maggard with eight points and Colsen Teeple had six. Southern Wells was led by Landon Johnson with eight and Trey Slusher had four.
The Tigers have a quick turnaround at Garrett starting at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16.
Southern Wells will be at Smith Academy at 2 p.m. the same day.
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BLUFFTON 43, SOUTHERN WELLS 22
At Southern Wells
BLUFFTON (3-1, 2-0 ACAC): Tucker Jenkins 9-12 0-1 18, Axton Beste 3-6 1-2 9, Kaleb Green 1-5 2-4 4, Eli Garrett 1-3 0-0 3, Cameron Williams 1-3 0-0 3, Declan Grieser 1-3 1-2 3, Nolan Lambert 1-1 0-0 3, Andrew Hunt 0-1 0-0 0, Hunter Wenger 0-1 0-0 0, Ben Maggard 0-1 0-0 0, Jude Baumgartner 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17-35 4-9 43.
SOUTHERN WELLS (0-4, 0-1 ACAC): Perrin Gates 3-7 4-7 10, Chandler Oswalt 1-12 2-2 6, Andrew Aker 1-7 0-0 3, CJ Reber 0-4 1-2 1, Evan Pennington 0-4 1-2 1, Caleb Johnson 0-1 1-2 1, Landon Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Trey Slusher 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 6-36 9-15 22.
Bluffton 11 13 11 8 –– 43
So. Wells 5 3 6 8 –– 22
Three-point FG: Bluffton: 5-14 (Beste 2-4, Lambert 1-1, Garrett 1-3, Williams 1-3, Grieser 0-1, Hunt 0-1 Jenkins 0-1), Southern Wells: 1-15 (Aker 1-6, Oswalt 0-7, Reber 0-2). Rebounds: Bluffton: 29 (Jenkins 12, Williams 4, Beste 4, Hunt 3, Wenger 2, Grieser 2, Garrett 1, Green 1), Southern Wells: 17 (Gates 12, Aker 1, Reber 1, Pennington 1, Oswalt, C. Johnson 1. Turnovers: Bluffton: 12, Southern Wells: 12. Fouls: Bluffton: 14, Southern Wells: 10. Fouled Out: None. Technicals: Bluffton 1 (team).
JV: 27-12 Bluffton (two quarters).
