Bluejays win fourth straight game at home

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF & TOM STOPPEL
When it was all over, it was one tired team simply outlasting another. That was coach Don Brubacher’s assessment after his Tabor Bluejays held off Southwestern, 74-68, Saturday in Hillsboro.

The win was Tabor’s fourth straight since the holiday break and bumped its season record above .500 for the first time this season at 8-7. The Jays are 3-3 in the KCAC.

“It was a really difficult game for both teams, physically,” Brubacher said when it was over. “Both teams were really tired.

Southwestern was coming off a hard-fought one-point overtime loss to Bethany on Thursday, but Brubacher wasn’t sure why his squad was fatigued.

“We struggled keeping our legs under us,” he said. “It looked like we were trying to play hard-and the bodies just would not cooperate. It looked like the spirit was willing, but the flesh just couldn’t get it going.”

After some give and take in the early minutes, the Moundbuilders built an eight-point lead thanks in larger part to three 3-point bombs from Drew Busby. But it was a Busby layup with 12:04 to play that put the Builders up, 20-12.

Two 3-pointers by Micah Ratzlaff and one by Scott Brubacher helped bring the Bluejays back to a 27-27 tie with 6:50 left in the half. Southwestern went back up by one point with 3:42 left, but Tabor ran off 12 straight points to go up by 10, 43-33.

A free throw by Southwestern’s Carl Dunbar with 32.6 seconds left cut Tabor’s lead to nine at intermission.

The Builders slowly crawled back into the game in the second half, and led briefly, 59-58, on a driving layup by James Titus with with 7:29 to play. But Tabor refused to cave, and slowly pushed the lead back to eight points, 71-63, when Micah Ratzlaff hit a spinning 10-footer with 3:36 to go.

The Builders got back to within four points, 72-68, when Busby nailed one more 3-pointer with 1:09 to play. But Jared Reece hit two clutch free throws with 20.5 seconds left to nail down the win.

Part of the Bluejays’ second-half struggle resulted from a shooting drought. After hitting a respectable 45 percent in the first half, the team slipped to 34.5 percent over the final 20 minutes, including a frigid 2-of-14 from behind the arc.

“In the second half we just went hopelessly cold,” Brubacher said. “Obviously, things change when you hit the perimeter shot. They have to come out and guard tougher, which creates more space inside.

“I felt like we did pick it up defensively as the half went along,” he said. “That’s why we survived, because we really didn’t get much put together offensively the entire game.”

Brubacher blamed a lot of it on that mysterious fatigued factor.

“We were too slow,” he said. “They played soft defense, and were trying to get a lot of help in the lane. You need to move quickly and react quickly-mentally and physically-to generate quality play against that style of defense.

“And it certainly would help if you could hit an open perimeter shot.”

Tabor finished with a balanced scoring attack. Scott Brubacher led the way with 14 points, including four 3-pointers. The Ratzlaff brothers, Tyson and Micah, each added 13 and Gattis finished with 11.

Lending a helpful hand was the Bluejay bench, which outscored the visitors’ bench, 23-9. Reece’s eight points led the way for Tabor.

Tabor 73, Ottawa 63

The Tabor men extended their winning streak to three games Thursday night, by defeating the Ottawa Braves, 73-63, in Hillsboro.

The visiting Braves hung tough with the Bluejays early, and the two teams were tied, 8-8, after four minutes of play.

But Tabor took control for the last 16 minutes of the half, outscoring the visitors 28-10 and boosting its advantage to 34-18 going into the locker room.

Tabor limited the visiting Braves to 29 percent shooting in the first half.

“The defense carried us,” coach Don Brubacher said. “Eighteen first-half points will serve you well most every night.”

That tenacious defense also forced 13 first-half turnovers, which translated into 14 Bluejay points.

All went well for the Bluejays to begin the second half. In fact, Tabor expanded its lead to 26, 58-32, with just under 10 minutes to play.

At that point, Ottawa coach Andy Carrier, frustrated with his team’s performance, replaced all five players he had in the game, and turned up the defensive heat.

That’s when things got warm for the Bluejays.

“When a team’s that far behind, you have to realize they play with desperation,” Brubacher said. “They play with a complete lack of pressure on themselves.”

With a 21-3 run, Ottawa proceeded to slice the lead over the next five minutes from 26 points to eight-with four minutes still left in the game.

Meanwhile, the Bluejays seem to evaporate on both ends of the court.

“We’re an unusual team,” Brubacher said. “We seem to require a great deal of defensive focus to compete.

“When we have that focus, we are a good defensive team. But when we lose that focus, we can’t seem to take away anything from our opponent.”

“They beat us on the blocks, they beat us on the boards, they shot the open 3-point shot, and they beat us with dribble penetration,” Brubacher said.

Ottawa though, may have used too much energy in the run. The Braves cut the lead to seven with 33 seconds remaining, but that was as close as they would get.

Tabor finally settled for the 10-point victory.

“I thought it was a nice team effort for the first 30 minutes,” Brubacher said. “I think our scoring was spread around nicely, and defensively we helped out.”

But the near collapse in the second half clearly frustrated the Bluejay coach.

“Defense is a team function,” he said. “We didn’t have people help on defense.

“We either guard really well, or we guard really badly. For 30 minutes we did pretty well, but for 10 minutes we lost it.

“It proves our guys know how to guard, but it also proves that at times our guys lack the determination to guard.”

Tabor did lose the battle of the boards, being out-rebounded 44-34.

“In the Ottawa run, we couldn’t get a rebound to save our lives,” Brubacher said.

Micah Ratzlaff paced the Bluejays’ scoring with 14 points, followed by Brad Gattis with 12. Scott Brubacher and Tyson Ratzlaff each dropped in 10 points.

Coming-The Bluejays hit the long road this week with an 8 p.m. game in Leavenworth against Saint Mary College on Thursday, then travel to Wichita on Saturday for a 7 p.m. game with Friends.

More from article archives
A grand opening-Hillsboro Farmer’s Market off to a hot start on a cool evening
ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF Despite overcast skies and cool temperatures, the Hillsboro...
Read More