By RYAN WALKER
In a sectional where five of the seven schools are ranked amung the top-20 in 2A, the Bluffton Tigers faced the top-ranked No. 5 Bishop Luers Knights. And the Knights proved that rank, topping the Tigers 68-37 on their own floor to end their season.
Bishop Luers’ (19-5) size, length, athleticism and depth was too much for the hosting Tigers (11-12).
Three Knights finished the game in double figures — Drelyn Truesdale and Daniel Kelly with 15 points and Dereon Truesdale with 11.
Bluffton wanted to clog up the scoring lanes with a 3-2 zone defense, hoping it could force deep shots due to Bishop Luers’ 31% clip on the year, but that didn’t work.
Kelly and Drelyn Truesdale combined for three triples in the first quarter, and the team scored all the rest of their 20 points inside the arc. That led them to a strong 29-16 lead at the break.
“It’s hard,” Bluffton head coach Craig Teagle said after the game. “We wanted to keep them out of the paint, and I think at halftime we’d given up 18 points in the pain and you can’t do that you got to make them beat you by threes.”
But then, the Knights got hot from beyond the arc, and they did it with several different players.
Kelly went 3-for-3 in the second half on threes, while Isaac Zay, Carmani Davis, Zachary Calderon and Hunter Meek all added at least one to the tally. For a team that makes about seven per game, Bishop Luers looked like a different team with 11 on Wednesday night.
“You can’t,” Teagle said about guarding the Knights’ depth. “And overall they only shoot 30% from the three, so your goal going in is making them shoot the three … once they got the lead the basket looks a lot bigger. I’ve been on that and so the basket look bigger.”
For Bluffton, it didn’t look like the same team either.
Rarely does their best player get shut out, but Bishop Luers had a game plan for Tucker Jenkins.
The senior forward averages 13.1 points per game and 3.9 rebounds, the Tigers’ top player in both categories. He picked up his third foul with 4:45 left in the first half and Teagle had to sub him out. Even before he left the game, he didn’t have a shot and didn’t touch the ball much.
Teagle said that along with the foul trouble, Bluffton’s guards and the coaching staff didn’t do a good job finding ways to get their best guy the ball.
A bright spot for the Tigers was their first-year guard, freshman Axton Beste.
He led the team in scoring with 18 and shot a clean 8-for-13 from the floor. He will lead a Tigers’ program next year that graduates Jenkins, Hunter Wenger, Eli Garrett and Andrew Hunt.
That will be in year two for Teagle, who led Bluffton to a 11-12 record after the team last season put up a 2-20 record.
His message about the season included wanting to beat Mississinewa last week to end the regular season so that the seniors could go out with a winning record. He emphasized the foundation they left behind in year one of the new coaching regimen.
“It’s tough to buy into a new coach,” Teagle said. “(There’s a) new way of doing things I felt like they really did, and we’ve always talked about them being part of the foundation, but they were more than the foundation. I had no idea we’d be able to have 11 wins. That tells you how much buy-in we had from them.”
ryan@news-banner.com
BISHOP LUERS 68, BLUFFTON 37
At Bluffton
BISHOP LUERS (19-5): Daniel Kelly 5-8 0-0 15, Drelyn Truesdale 6-11 2-2 15, Dereon Truesdale 4-9 3-6 11, Isaac Zay 3-4 0-0 7, Zachary Calderon 2-6 0-0 6, Hunter Meek 2-3 0-0 5, Carmani Davis 2-5 0-0 5, George Javins 1-2 0-0 2, Cameron Mitchell 1-3 0-0 2, Brandon Busch 0-0 0-0 0, Benjamin Kiracofe 0-0 0-0 0, TOTALS: 26-52 5-8 68.
BLUFFTON (11-12): Axton Beste 8-13 0-0 18, Hunter Wenger 2-5 0-0 5, Tucker Jenkins 2-4 0-0 4, Cameron Williams 1-2 0-0 3, Eli Garrett 1-1 0-0 3, Andrew hunt 0-3 0-2 0, Nolan Lambert 0-1 0-0 0, Ben Maggard 0-1 0-0 0, Jared Moser 0-0 0-0 0, Marshall Gerber 0-0 0-0 0.TOTALS: 16-32 0-3 37.
B. Luers 21 8 20 19 — 68
Bluffton 12 4 9 12 — 37
Three-point FG: Bishop Luers 11-24 (Kelly 5-7, Calderon 2-4, Meek 1-2, Zay 1-2, Dre. Truesdale 1-3, Davis 1-4, Mitchell 0-1. Der. Truesdale 0-1), Bluffton 5-14 (Beste 2-6, Williams 1-2, Wenger 1-1, Hunt 0-2, Jenkins 0-1, Lambert 0-1). Rebounds: Bishop Luers 22 (Dre. Truesdale 6, Davis 3, Meek 3, Kelly 2, Jackson 2, Calderon 2, Mitchell 1, Busch 1, Zay 1), Bluffton 14 (Williams 4, Jenkins 2, Grieser 2, Hunt 2, Beste 1, Lambert 1, Moser 1, Gerber 1) Turnovers: Bishop Luers 6, Bluffton 19. Fouls: Bishop Luers 4, Bluffton 11. Fouled Out: None. Technicals: None.
