By RYAN WALKER
Bluffton looked night and day between its home win against Southern Wells Saturday as opposed to the loss against Blackford on Thursday.
The Tigers (7-1, 2-0 ACAC) scored 36 more points and got back on track in a blowout over the county and ACAC rival Raiders (2-6, 0-2 ACAC) 69-24.
Head coach Doug Curtis kept it simple — the team was more focused and felt “much better” about this one than the 41-33 loss at Blackford on Thursday.
“I thought our focus was back where it should be, which is getting in passing lanes, getting deflections, trying to get run outs,” Curtis said after the game. “Thursday, we were a step off and didn’t do a good job of spreading it out. I thought we did a lot better job tonight of trying to create things we wanted to.”
In the last game, the team was faced with a last-minute injury to a top player, Konley Ault, with a hand injury and had trouble adjusting on the fly. Against a solid Blackford team, Bluffton shot a season-low of 23 percent from the floor. Against Southern Wells, the 28-70 performance had them up to 40 percent.
On the opposing side, the Raiders didn’t struggle as much as one would think at 27 percent, but taking 41 fewer shots is what hurt the most. And turning the ball over double-digit times in the first quarter wasn’t helping either, as Curtis threw a pressure-inducing full-court press for most of the first half, more than usual.
“(The Raiders) haven’t been a high-scoring team this year, so we definitely were going to try to make it a high-scoring game or at least on our part make it a high-scoring game. We talked on the bus on the way home Thursday, and I’ve kind of been debating how fast I wanted to play anyways, and then with Konley’s injury and us playing poorly Thursday, I thought, ‘Alright, we’re gonna play faster.’”
Raiders’ forward Ashlie Needler got in the high post with a jumper to answer two quick buckets by Haley Gibson and Isabella Stout at 4-4, but then the Tigers went on a tear. For the remaining 3:55 of the first, Bluffton completed a 15-0 run with four different scorers.
The run would pour into the second quarter when freshmen Sophie Eisenhut, Maryn Schreiber and Tressa Renner made shots and finished it at 21-0. Bri Leidig’s basket ended the drought, but the score was already 25-6 by that point.
Needler produced five points in the quarter and was the Raiders’ best effort to climb back into the game, making a pair of shots to add to her team-high 13 points.
“Bluffton’s a great basketball team,” Southern Wells head coach Jessica Killingbeck said. “They apply a lot of pressure. I thought when we were able to get it in the frontcourt, we did a really good job of being patient and looking for a high-post, and I thought we got really good shot opportunities and looks when we were in the half-court.
Unfortunately for Southern Wells, the problems kept coming when Needler hit her third foul early in the second quarter and her fourth with under a minute to play before the break. Collena Reeves picked up three early fouls as well, but Killingbeck kept both her team’s leaders in the game.
The choice was necessary in her mind, and it paid off, as both finished the game without picking up the fifth foul. The two finished as the top scorers, with Reeves adding nine points to the mix, and leaving both in helped the team settle themselves and stopped turning the ball over significantly in the second quarter.
“We made the decision that (Needler) plays better when she’s under pressure, knowing that she has that many fouls,” Killingbeck said. “And I thought in the second half, she did a fantastic job defensively and understood that we needed her on the floor because we have to have Ashley on the floor. And we really need Colleen on the floor, too.”
The Bluffton scoring attack was a mixture of how it’s been playing this season, using defense and turnovers to turn into offense but experimenting with some new options.
The team shot the ball more from mid-range and beyond throughout the game, something that Curtis has echoed so far this season.
Curtis shared that he talked with Stout and Gibson about getting more shots up. The two combined for 31 attempts and scored 35 points.
Madyson Sonnigsen and Renner also were in double figures for the Tigers.
Bluffton also held Southern Wells to single digits in every quarter, while scoring in double figures in all of them.
Bluffton also won the junior varsity game 47-21.
Madelyn Funk led the Tigers with 13 points, Shakyriana Eskridge with eight.
Remi Holmes led the Raiders with 10 points, Erika Beavans with six.
Bluffton will host Wabash at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5.
Southern Wells will be at Blackhawk Christian at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5.
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BLUFFTON 69, SOUTHERN WELLS 24
at Bluffton
BLUFFTON (7-1, 2-0 ACAC): Isabella Stout 5-14 8-9 18, Haley Gibson 8-17 0-0 17, Madyson Sonnigsen 5-8 0-0 13, Tressa Renner 4-8 0-0 10, Sophie Eisenhut 3-5 0-1 6, Marly Drayer 2-7 0-0 5, Maryn Schreiber 1-10 0-0 2, Madelyn Funk 0-0 0-0 0, Cayah King 0-0 0-0 0, Shakyriana Eskridge 0-1 0-0 0, Addison Yates 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 28-70 7-12 69.
SOUTHERN WELLS (2-6, 0-2 ACAC): Ashlie Needler 5-10 3-6 13, Collena Reeves 2-4 1-2 6, Bri Leidig 1-4 0-0 2, Kyah Thomas 1-4 0-0 2, Erika Beavans 0-2 0-0 0, Gracie Reeves 0-1 0-0 0, Kenzie Paxson 0-1 0-0 0, Karlee Warner 0-3 0-2 0, Aubree Meyer 0-0 0-0 0, Kaylea Coffel 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 8-29 6-8 24.
Southern Wells 4 9 4 7 — 69
Bluffton 19 22 16 12 — 24
Three-Point FG: Southern Wells 1-8 (C. Reeves 1-1, Warner 0-2, Needler 0-1, Thomas 0-1, G. Reeves 0-1, Beavans 0-2), Bluffton 7-24 (Sonnigsen 3-5, Renner 2-4, Drayer 1-4, Gibson 1-7, Eskridge 0-1, Stout 0-3). Rebounds: Southern Wells 20 (Needler 6, Leidig 5, Paxson 2, G. Reeves 2, C. Reeves 1, Warner 1, Thomas 1), Bluffton 39 (Stout 10, Schreiber 9, Drayer 5, Sonnigsen 5, Gibson 4, Eisenhut 3, Renner 2, Yates 1). Turnovers: Southern Wells 28, Bluffton 8. Fouls: Southern Wells 11, Bluffton 7. Fouled Out: None. Technical Fouls: Bluffton Stout.
JV: 47-21 Bluffton.
