Bluejay men back on winning track with two victories

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN TOM STOPPEL
Southwestern came into Saturday nights game with Tabor featuring a high-octane offense that averaged 87.4 points per game.

From the opening tip, the Moundbuilders showed a desire to run. But when the game was over, the Moundbuilders had run into a Bluejay buzzsaw and left town on the short end of a 90-80 score.

Even though his team allowed 80 points, Tabor coach Don Brubacher applauded his team’s defensive effort.

“I really felt we guarded intelligently and with a lot of determination,” he said. “I don’t feel the 80 points is an accurate indication of how well we played defense tonight.”

Early in the first half, both teams traded punches like a pair of street fighters. The lead changed hands five times in the opening seven minutes.

With 11:25 left in the half, Tabor was clinging to an 18-17 lead, but the tide was about to turn.

Southwestern put together an 18-6 run behind the 3-point shooting of Ricky Kendrick and K.J. Wilkens. The pair combined for 23 first-half points and the Builders led, 35-24, with 4:17 left in the half.

But the Bluejays weren’t ready to concede the game just yet. Behind the play of Andy Brubacher and Grant Brubacher-who scored or assisted on every basket the rest of the half-Tabor launched a 10-2 run that sliced the deficit to 37-34.

The second half opened with Tabor catching the Builders at 39-all before the Bluejays took a 44-43 lead with 16:50 to play.

Tabor held on to the lead the rest of the way.

Up 50-47, Tabor began pounding the ball inside to Martin de Boer, who returned to early-season form by dominating play in the paint with 10 straight points, extending Tabor’s lead to as many as 10 points.

“Martin just gave us a magnificent stretch in the second half,” Brubacher said. “He played well defensively and really blanketed the boards for us.

“He played great offense and finished plays, and we even missed him several times when he had his man sealed so he could have had an even better game,” he added.

Displaying its most effective inside-outside combination of the season, Tabor connected on eight of 13 3-point shots and 16 of 19 free throws to build its lead to as many as 14 points in the final 20 minutes.

Andy Brubacher scored 22 points on 6-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc. Brad Gattis added 19 points, including 7 of 10 free throws. Grant Brubacher made four of seven 3-point shots and both Pat Miller and de Boer scored 10 points.

Tabor made 22 of 25 free throws (88 percent) and 12 of 23 (52.2 percent) from behind the 3-point line.

Kendrick led the Builders with 28 points.

With the victory, Tabor improved to 6-4 in KCAC play and 12-8 overall while Southwestern fell from the top spot in the conference at 7-3 and 15-5 overall.

Brubacher said he hopes the game is a sign of things to come for Tabor.

“We recently went through a lull in a lot of respects,” he said. “We hope we’re getting things turned back around.

“Typically, if you want to do well in the conference race you have to win at home, and we accomplished that tonight.”

Ottawa-Tabor let a 16-point second-half lead slip thought its fingers at Ottawa on Thursday but managed to grab a 64-60 victory in overtime.

Trailing 7-6, Tabor effectively pounded the ball inside on the smaller Braves, building a 31-19 halftime lead on the interior play of Brad Gattis, Chris Metcalf and Martin de Boer.

Coach Don Brubacher was happy with his team’s efficiency on offense. The Bluejays committed just four turnovers while holding the Braves to 25 percent field-goal accuracy.

The second half began as a carbon copy of the first as Tabor pounded the ball inside to de Boer, who responded with back-to-back baskets to expand the Bluejays’ lead to 35-19.

But Brubacher’s dream performance was about to turn into a familiar nightmare.

Ottawa canned three 3-point baskets and, defensively, switched to a stingy zone.

The result was a 21-6 run that sliced Tabor’s once comfortable to 41-40 advantage in just 10 minutes.

Brubacher said his team didn’t handle the zone defense well.

“They sat in their zone and we couldn’t crack it or hit a shot, and that’s the reason the game ended up in jeopardy,” he said. “Playing against a zone defense is tough when you can’t hit a shot.”

With the lead precarious at best, Ottawa finally overtook Tabor and built a 52-47 lead with just 3:26 to play.

“We made some staggeringly bad choices on some of our passes and that hurt us in a huge way,” Brubacher said. “The game got away from us and we were fortunate go get back into it.”

Jared Reese fired the first salvo on a driving layup to bring Tabor to within 52-49 with 2:39 to play.

After Brett Lickteig made a free throw, Brad Gattis connected on four of four free throws down the stretch to tie the game at 53 with 43 seconds to play.

“The guys did step up and make a great effort with our pressure defense in the last moments of the game,” Brubacher said. “We did a pretty amazing job defensively.”

After Ottawa missed a chance to regain the lead, Tabor called timeout with 10 seconds left to set up the potential winning shot.

The play worked to perfection but Scott Shaffer’s 3-point shot was just off the mark, sending the game into overtime.

“Scott had a great look but couldn’t get it to go down,” Brubacher said. “I was pleased with how we executed the play.”

Ottawa entered the extra frame without Lickteig, last week’s KCAC player-of-the-week, who was disqualified with five fouls.

Once in overtime, Gattis nailed a 3-point basket and Shaffer redeemed himself with a spectacular put back as Tabor built a five-point lead.

After a 3-pointer cut the lead to 62-60, Gattis sealed the win with a pair of free throws for two of his season-high 25 points and 64-60 Tabor victory.

In addition to his points, Gattis pulled down 11 rebounds.

“Bradley just had a really strong game for us,” Brubacher said. “And we needed it.”

Gattis hit seven of 13 shots from the field and 10 of 12 from the charity stripe. De Boer scored 10 points for the Bluejays.

Tabor made 25 of 61 shots (41 percent) from the field while Ottawa made 19 of 66 (28.8 percent).

Tabor hit just three of 22 tries (13.6 percent) from behind the 3-point arc. The Bluejays committed 20 turnovers compared to just 13 for Ottawa.

Elvis Wheeler scored 26 points as the Braves fell to 4-5 in conference play and 7-11 overall.

With the win, Tabor snapped a modest two-game losing skid and improved to 5-4 in KCAC play and 11-8 overall.

“We’re absolutely pleased with the win, but we need to solve some things in order for us to continue to improve,” Brubacher said.

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