By RICK SPRUNGER
On a night of freezing rain outdoors, Bluffton’s offense went into hibernation indoors.
The end result was a 46-35 loss to Woodlan Saturday night on the Bluffton home hardwood that left head coach Karl Grau searching for answers.
“We struggled to score,” said Grau after a lengthy team meeting. “Defensively, we played well enough to win,” he continued.
“We gave ourselves a lot of opportunities, but we are seriously in need of improving our (offensive) skill level.
“It just deflates you when you can’t put the ball in the basket.”
The stats tell the story.
Trailing 30-20 at halftime, the Bluffton defense turned it up a notch and forced a whopping 14 Woodlan turnovers after the break while holding the Warriors to just 7-for-20 shooting (35 percent) during that time.
But the Tigers could only connect on four field goals in the entire second half in 23 tries themselves for a shooting percentage of just 17.4 during the final two quarters.
For the game, Bluffton was just 11-for-42 from the field for a sub-freezing 26.2 percent.
To make matters even worse, the Tigers only connected on 9 of 18 free throws.
That 10-point halftime hole got even worse, 34-20, at the outset of the third quarter.
But Woodlan didn’t score again in the period to give Bluffton an opening.
The Tigers, however, missed their first six shots of the quarter before Tucker Jenkins finally got one to fall on a power move underneath with 1:25 to play in the period.
And when Sam Baumgartner came up with a steal and fed Max Stoppenhagen for a layup to end the third quarter, the Bluffton crowd started to come alive.
Carter McConnell then started the fourth quarter with a three-point play underneath for a 34-30 score, and the Tigers got the ball right back on yet another Woodlan turnover.
But Woodlan’s 6-foot-8 center Joe Reidy, who finished with game-highs of 17 points and 16 rebounds, stuffed McConnell underneath, Bluffton proceeded to miss 11 shots in a row, and Woodlan bolted off on a 12-1 run to put the game away at 46-31.
It was another Bluffton offensive draught in the second quarter that allowed the Warriors to pull away to that 10-point halftime lead.
The Tigers were hanging right in there, trailing just 17-15 after a five-footer by Harrison Schreiber in the lane with 5:38 left in the half.
But Bluffton missed its next eight straight shots from the field while managing just two Schreiber free throws over the next five and a half minutes.
Woodlan, meanwhile, was off and running on a 12-2 spurt to surge in front, 29-17, before settling for that 30-20 halftime spread.
Reidy was the only player for either team to reach double figures in the contest. Stoppenhagen and Schreiber paced Bluffton with 9 points apiece while McConnell added 8.
Bluffton took both the junior varsity and freshmen contests, winning the reserve game by a 42-37 score and the frosh matchup by a 35-27 count.
Bluffton’s jayvees were led by Hutch Craighead and Andrew Hunt with 10 points apiece.
The Tiger ninth-graders were paced by Nolan Lambert with 17 points and Ben Maggard with 11.
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WOODLAN 46, BLUFFTON 35
At Bluffton High School
WOODLAN (7-6, 1-2): Lincoln Sparks 0-0 1-2 1, Dawson Lichty 0-2 0-0 0, Alex Miller 3-11 1-1 8, Joe Reidy 7-18 3-3 17, DeJay Gerig 3-3 1-1 7, Drew Fleek 3-4 2-3 8, Trey Yoder 1-4 2-2 5, Luke Fox 0-1 0-0 0, Dakota Sparks 0-0 0-0 0. TOTAL: 17-43 9-11 46.
BLUFFTON (2-8, 2-1): Max Stoppenhagen 3-16 1-2 9, Harrison Schreiber 3-9 2-2 9, Tucker Jenkins 1-5 0-1 2, Carter McConnell 3-7 2-7 8, Andrew Ball 0-2 4-4 4, Fletcher Wenger 0-0 0-0 0, Sam Baumgartner 0-0 0-0 0, Hunter Wenger 1-3 0-2 3. TOTAL: 11-42 9-18 35.
Woodlan 12 18 4 12 –– 46
Bluffton 10 10 7 8 –– 35
Three-point Goals: Woodlan 2-12 (Miller 1-6, Reidy 0-3, Yoder 1-2, Fox 0-1), Bluffton 4-17 (Stoppenhagen 2-11, Schreiber 1-3, Jenkins 0-1, H. Wenger 1-1). Rebounds: Woodlan 38 (Reidy 16, Gerig 8), Bluffton 22 (McConnell 5). Turnovers: Woodlan 19, Bluffton 12. Fouls: Woodlan 16, Bluffton 17. Fouled Out: None. Technicals: None.
JV: Bluffton 42, Woodlan 37.
Freshmen: Bluffton 35, Woodlan 27.
