By ANDREW FEEBACK
GARRETT — A bad second quarter put the Bluffton Tigers in a hole, and too many empty possessions kept them there as they fell to the host Garrett Railroaders 52-39 Saturday night.
Bluffton (3-2) looked crisp early on, hitting four of its first five shots and taking an early 12-8 lead.
Garrett (4-4) eased ahead, and once it had the lead, the Tigers never got it back.
“They’re more skilled than we are,” coach Craig Teagle said. “You can tell they’ve really worked on their ball-handling and shooting. It’s something where we’re not going to be there this year.”
A three-pointer from Cameron Williams was all the Tigers managed in the second frame, but they found themselves still within a couple of possessions at the half.
Bluffton got an easy layup from Tucker Jenkins to begin the second half, but it was all downhill after that.
“I didn’t like our sense of urgency in the second half,” Teagle said. “We came out and had a great first offensive possession and got a really good look, but then we came down and took a bad shot, turned it over twice, took a bad shot. So, then we end up with four empty possessions after we started with a great possession, and you just can’t do that when you’re behind.”
Axton Beste scored and got fouled, which brought the Tigers within 27-21. At that point, the Tigers were in the bonus for the rest of the quarter even with four minutes to play.
A back-breaking sequence followed, in which Beste missed his free throw attempt, the Tigers rebounded the miss but turned it over. Garrett’s Drayton Myers scored and was fouled by Williams in transition, and then Williams was given a technical.
It led to a four-point possession for the Railroaders, and it could have been worse.
“We just couldn’t cut into that,” Teagle said. “We’d have a couple good possessions, but then a couple bad ones.”
Bluffton never got any closer than seven the rest of the way.
Strangely, the Tigers actually shot above 50 percent from the floor, hitting 16 of 30 overall. But their 14 turnovers were twice as many as the home team, and only getting to the free-throw line six times didn’t help either.
Jenkins and Kaleb Green both had 10 for the Tigers, while Williams added nine and Beste had eight.
Garrett placed four in double figures: Myers with 15, Carter Coffman and Parker Reed with 11 each and Jaxon Robinson with 10.
For Teagle, this game was a pretty good demonstration of how much work the Tigers have to do.
“I feel like we’re not where we need to be as far as understanding our offensive concepts,” Teagle said. “Defensively, I thought we could be a pretty good defensive team, but we gave up 24 points in the paint tonight, and with how we play defense, you’re not going to be very good doing that. We’re trying to make people have to shoot outside shots. Way too many points going to the rim; some of that is not getting the ball stopped early, some of it may be a lack of communication, some of it may be just not enough repetition yet. We’ve just got to continue to work on it.”
Bluffton will host Norwell 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 22.
The Tigers’ junior varsity team lost to Garrett 25-23. Ben Maggard and Nolan Lambert both scored six points.
Bluffton took the freshman game 31-20, with Jonah Geisel scoring 10 points and Matt Tierney adding seven.
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GARRETT 52, BLUFFTON 39
At Garrett
BLUFFTON (3-2): Nolan Lambert 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Hunt 0-0 0-0 0, Elijah Garrett 0-1 0-0 0, Hunter Wenger 0-2 0-0 0, Cameron Williams 3-5 0-0 9, Tucker Jenkins 4-6 2-2 10, Jude Baumgartner 0-0 0-0 0, Axton Beste 4-5 0-1 8, Declan Grieser 1-4 0-0 2, Kaleb Green 4-7 2-3 10, Benjamin Maggard 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 16-30 4-6 39.
GARRETT (4-4): Jakob Hoover 0-1 1-2 1, Parker Reed 4-6 2-5 11, Royce Fuentes 0-0 4-4 4, Luke Coffman 0-3 0-0 0, Drayton Myers 6-11 2-3 15, Jaxon Robinson 4-6 0-0 10, Carter Coffman 4-7 2-3 11, Kohen Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Jacob Gonya 0-0 0-0 0, David Westropp 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS: 18-35 11-17 52.
Bluffton 14 3 8 14 — 39
Garrett 14 9 14 15 — 52
Three-point Goals: Bluffton 3-8 (Williams 3-5, Wenger 0-1, Grieser 0-2), Garrett 5-11 (Robinson 2-3, Reed 1-2, Myers 1-4, Carter Coffman 0-1, Westropp 0-1). Rebounds: Bluffton 15 (Jenkins 8, Hunt 2, Williams 2, Beste 1, Grieser 1, Green 1), Garrett 11 (Carter Coffman 2, Reed 2, Hoover 2, Robinson 2, Westropp 1, Luke Coffman 1, Myers 1). Turnovers: Bluffton 14, Garrett 7. Fouls: Bluffton 18, Garrett 8. Fouled out: None. Technicals: Williams.
JV: Garrett 25, Bluffton 23.
Freshman: Bluffton 31, Garrett 20.
