By ANDREW FEEBACK
GAS CITY— After struggling to make shots in its previous two games, the Bluffton Tigers’ basketball team decided to change its approach Tuesday night.
By holding the host Mississinewa Indians to 25% shooting and forcing 21 turnovers, the Tigers rolled to a 60-24 win for their third victory in four tries.
“We decided instead of barking on offense from Saturday, we were going to bark on defense,” head coach Doug Curtis said. “We shot the ball poorly (on Saturday) and had that big drought, but if we don’t give them 57 points and put them at the line 25 times, we’re in a lot better shape. We didn’t even have the ball in our hands after our shooting drills yesterday, all we did was work on defense.”
It took Mississinewa nearly six minutes to get on the board, and even though the Tigers only made 5-14 shots in the first quarter, they still held a 14-4 lead.
The shots began to drop as the second quarter progressed, allowing Bluffton to go on a 12-2 run that got the lead up to 20.
Mississinewa made its first three-pointer of the game to open the second half, then the Tigers reached running clock territory by scoring the next 12 points to go up 50-15.
Bluffton finished 22-47 overall, while Mississinewa was 9-36.
There were fewer possessions with the clock running, but the defensive intensity was still there for the Tigers the rest of the way.
“You could definitely tell tonight that we had 32 minutes of intense defense,” Curtis said. “We weren’t going to let up at halftime, we were going to play defense. Whatever happened on the offensive end, happened. That was our main goal tonight, not to focus on shooting the ball poorly, but focus on defense, get some more run-outs, get some easy shots, and throw the ball in the post a little bit more, which we did too.”
Maryn Schreiber led all scorers with 18 points, while Isabella Stout added 16. Khloe Dick scored nine and Konley Ault had seven.
Jaci Crick had eight for the Indians while Avery Wilson tallied seven.
Bluffton will host Huntington North Friday night.
The Tigers took the junior varsity game 47-34. Grace Fry and Kamryn Ault both scored 10 points, while Bridget Steffen and Cora Kunkel each had six.
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BLUFFTON 60,
MISSISSINEWA 24
At Mississinewa
BLUFFTON (3-1): Khloe Dick 3-6 1-4 9, Isabella Stout 7-14 2-2 16, Konley Ault 2-7 3-4 7, Marly Drayer 1-4 0-0 2, Maryn Schreiber 6-11 6-7 18, Tressa Renner 0-0 0-2 0, Madyson Sonnigsen 1-2 0-1 2, Madelyn Funk 0-1 0-0 0, Sophie Eisenhut 2-2 0-0 4, Isla Gibson 0-0 0-0 0, Kamryn Ault 0-0 2-2 2. TOTALS: 22-47 14-22 60.
MISSISSINEWA (1-4): Josie Jones 0-0 0-0 0, Brooklyn Nash 1-1 0-0 3, Avery Wilson 3-5 0-0 7, Charleigh Baledge 0-9 0-0 0, Ashlyn Baker 0-5 2-2 2, Lilah Greer 1-1 0-0 2, Jaci Crick 3-12 2-3 8, Trinity Haynes 0-0 0-0 0, Kiersten Planck 0-0 0-0 0, Emma Wakeman 1-3 0-0 2. TOTALS: 9-36 4-5 24.
Bluffton 14 24 16 6 — 60
Mississinewa 4 8 4 8 — 24
Three-point Shooting: Bluffton 2-10 (Dick 2-5, Stout 0-3, Drayer 0-2), Mississinewa 2-9 (Nash 1-1, Wilson 1-1, Crick 0-3, Baker 0-3, Baledge 0-1). Rebounds: Bluffton 32 (Sonnigsen 7, Schreiber 7, Stout 5, Renner 3, Ault 3, Eisenhut 3, Dick 2, Gibson 1, Drayer), Mississinewa 11 (Crick 5, Wilson 3, Nash 1, Baledge 1, Planck 1). Turnovers: Bluffton 13, Mississinewa 21. Fouls: Bluffton 9, Mississinewa 17. Fouled out: None. Technicals: None.
JV: Bluffton 47, Mississinewa 34.
