By ANDREW FEEBACK
BERNE — Trouble rebounding and making shots brought an end to the Bluffton Tigers’ basketball season Friday night as they fell 54-44 to the Fort Wayne Bishop Luers Knights in the semi-final round of the South Adams sectional.
With a pair of six-foot tall post players in their starting lineup, the Knights controlled the boards for much of the game, making it hard for the Tigers to rebound shots they missed, as well as come up with rebounds when the Knights missed.
“We knew we were going to struggle there,” coach Doug Curtis said. “Our goal was to try and keep them 15 (points) and under and contained, not give them open threes, and obviously we had to do our job at the other end. We did a little bit of that, but you have to consistently do that throughout the game, and we had too many letdowns.”
Bishop Luers (15-6) move on to the sectional final, where it will face a 19-3 Whitko squad.
Bluffton ended its season 17-7.
Konley Ault led the Tigers with 15 points, while Isabella Stout added nine and Maryn Schreiber had eight.
Annika Davis topped the Knights with 21 and Addison Shank had 16.
The shooting stats for both teams were nearly even, but it was the inside play of the 6-0 senior Shank, along with 6-2 sophomore Miley Wareing, that gave the Tigers fits throughout the contest.
Bluffton took an early 8-4 lead, but Shank and Wareing keyed a 16-3 run by the Knights that had the Tigers trying to dig out of a hole the rest of the way.
Also contributing to that difficult stretch for the Tigers was a full-court press from the Knights that led to six Tiger turnovers in the first quarter.
Even when the Tigers got into their half-court sets, the length of Luers proved disruptive.
The Tigers clawed back to within 26-20 thanks to a three-pointer from Ault and a fast-break lay-in from Tressa Renner just seconds before the first half ended.
They made some changes at the break, which helped them stay in it, but they struggled to find the shot that could really get a rally going.
“The problem is, they ran a 1-2-2 and a 1-3-1, and you couldn’t ever tell which one they’d be in,” Curtis said, referring to the defenses Luers played. “We were trying to match what they were doing, and in the second half we just said screw it, we were just going to run the offense we ran against the 1-2-2. We stayed in it the whole time, and it worked a lot better. We should have done that to start with.”
Luers pushed its lead to nine early in the second half, but Bluffton used an 8-2 run to get back within 34-31, and trailed by only four entering the fourth.
They had a chance to draw even closer, but couldn’t convert.
Annika Davis made a step-back three from the wing, then on the next possession, took a pass from Shank and hit from the opposite wing.
All of a sudden, Luers led 43-33. Bluffton never came closer than eight the rest of the way.
Ault scored seven more points in the frame to keep the margin respectable, and senior Cayah King made a free-throw line jumper in the final seconds for the game’s final points.
King, along with senior Haley Gibson, played their final games in a Bluffton uniform.
Curtis was very pleased with the progress his players made throughout his first season leading the program.
“I thought they improved dramatically from what I saw in the summer,” he said. “As they learned and continued to get better at the things we were doing, I thought it showed. We’ve just got to be a little tougher to get over the hump against some of these better teams. A lot of these games we were there in the end, we’ve just got to get a little tougher yet.”
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FORT WAYNE LUERS 54,
BLUFFTON 44
At South Adams
FORT WAYNE BISHOP LUERS (15-6): Karianne Gilman 0-2 3-4 3, Addison Warner 0-0 2-2 2, Annika Davis 6-16 5-7 21, Kyndal Tyree 1-4 0-0 2, Matilyn Johannsen 0-0 0-0 0, Margaret Parent 0-0 0-0 0, Reese Rhodehamel 1-5 0-0 3, Rhianna Wallace 0-0 0-0 0, Brooklyn Gray 0-0 0-0 0, Miley Wareing 3-9 1-5 7, Addison Shank 7-13 2-6 16. TOTALS: 18-49 13-24 54.
BLUFFTON (17-7): Isabella Stout 4-8 0-0 9, Konley Ault 5-12 2-2 15, Marly Drayer 0-2 3-4 3, Maryn Schreiber 3-7 2-6 8, Haley Gibson 0-5 0-0 0, Tressa Renner 1-3 0-0 2, Madyson Sonnigsen 2-8 0-0 5, Cayah King 1-1 0-0 2, Sophie Eisenhut 0-0 0-0 0, Addison Yates 0-0 0-0 0, Madelyn Funk 0-0 0-0 0, Isla Gibson 0-0 0-0 0, Shak Eskridge 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 16-46 7-12 44.
FW Bishop Luers 12 14 11 17 — 54
Bluffton 8 12 13 11 — 44
Three-point Goals: Fort Wayne Luers 5-14 (Davis 4-9, Rhodehamel 1-4, Gilman 0-1), Bluffton 5-17 (Ault 3-5, Stout 1-2, Sonnigsen 1-7, Gibson 0-3). Rebounds: Fort Wayne Luers 30 (Wareing 10, Shank 6, Davis 6, Rhodehamel 4, Gilman 3, Tyree 1), Bluffton 22 (Schreiber 10, Sonnigsen 5, Gibson 3, Drayer 2, Stout 1, Ault 1). Turnovers: Fort Wayne Luers 13, Bluffton 12. Fouls: Fort Wayne Luers 13, Bluffton 19. Fouled out: None. Technicals: None.
