Strong defensive effort leads Tabor past McPherson

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN TOM STOPPEL
Teams that aspire to win conference championships know one thing for sure-you have to protect your home turf.

Saturday night in Hillsboro, the Bluejays found themselves, almost literally, in a street war with the McPherson Bulldogs, but did what was necessary to capture a 60-47 victory and take a 3-1 KCAC mark into the holiday break.

“We try to keep playing fundamental basketball, but we try to prepare for any style of play,” coach Don Brubacher said. “There were times tonight where we did a very good job of handling the play when it became very physical.”

Things couldn’t have begun much better for Tabor when Brad Gattis continued his recent hot shooting streak, nailing a 22-foot jumper from the wing off a Matt Nelson assist to stake Tabor to a 3-0 lead.

Little did McPherson coach Roger Trimmel know, but his Bulldogs would be clawing their way from behind for the rest of the night.

The Bluejays got another 3-point basket-this one from Andy Brubacher-with 11:25 to play in the half to give Tabor its first double-digit lead at 17-7.

After Thursday’s five-point loss to Southwestern, coach Brubacher said the opening stretch of Saturday’s game was important.

“I still don’t feel we executed our offense very well from beginning to end, but I felt the first five to seven minutes of this game we did very well,” he said. “In some respects, I’m pleased with how we bounced back from Thursday.”

Tabor’s lead reached 11 points in the first half before the Bluejays settled for a 26-18 lead at intermission.

Although the Bluejay offense struggled at times to find consistency, its defense was rock solid from the outset.

McPherson made only 26.7 percent (8-30) of its field-goal attempts in the half, including 1-for-12 shooting (8.3 percent) from beyond the 3-point arc.

“Our defensive play was really good from beginning to end,” Brubacher said. “We struggled in some aspects, but we had a good effort on the defensive boards.”

Another consistent aspect of Saturday’s game was the physical play of McPherson, which at times crossed the limits of sportsmanship.

After Gattis nailed a 3-point basket and added a free throw moments later, Tabor’s lead swelled at 17 points and caused McPherson to reach the boiling point.

After Nate Hadachek, a good player with a bad attitude, hit a 3-point basket to cut the lead to 14 points, he was whistled for a personal foul and compounded it by slamming the ball, earning a technical foul.

Tyler Weinbrenner connected on three of four free throws in the aftermath and Tabor was back on top by 17. The rest of the game was spent hoping no one got hurt.

The situation, Brubacher said, is common to Bluejay basketball.

“When a team gets down, the reaction to try to get the game going in their direction is to become much more physical and that happens a lot to us,” he said. “McPherson didn’t actually get out and get physical on the basketball as much as other aspects of the game.

“In most cases, the officials will allow the team that’s behind to play that way in order to get back into the game.”

But the Bulldogs never were able to reduce Tabor’s lead to less than 13 points in the second half.

Gattis led Tabor in scoring for the fourth straight game and was the only Bluejay to reach double digits, this time scoring 15 points. Tim Cox and Lee Gustafson matched Gattis with 15 points each.

Tabor hit 50 percent (10-20) in the second half to finish at 42.9 percent (18-42) including seven of 21 (33.3 percent) from behind the 3-point arc.

The Bluejays also connected on 17 of 25 (68 percent) shots from the foul stripe.

McPherson, meanwhile, made only 29.6 percent (16-54) for the game, including 16.7 percent (3-18) shooting from beyond the arc.

Brubacher said Tabor would be in great shape if the defense continues to perform at this level.

“You’d certainly think we’d win the majority of our games if we only allow 47 points,” he said.

Both teams pulled down 34 rebounds; Chris Metcalf led Tabor with seven.

With the win, Tabor improved to 3-1 in the KCAC and is in a three-way tie for first place while improving to 6-5 overall.

“I’m not satisfied where we are with our game,” Brubacher said. “We still have some real holes to fill and we’re off for a week and a half, come back and practice five times in three days and we play again so it’s going to be hard.

“When we play badly, we’re playing much too badly,” he said. “Our worst needs to be substantially better, but our best play serves us well.”

Southwestern-Tabor’s 81-76 loss to the Moundbuilders Thursday night at Winfield wasn’t as close as the score might indicate.

“When Southwestern got assertive, they found out they could do anything they wanted to against us if they just tried,” a frustrated coach Don Brubacher said. “It looked as if we knew what we were doing, but in actuality we didn’t have a clue.”

Strong words for a team that just lost its first conference game in three tries. But Brubacher said his team didn’t come ready to play.

Early in the game, Tabor battled the 19th-ranked Moundbuilders evenly, and even took the upper hand throughout the game’s first 10 minutes.

Brad Gattis scored Tabor’s first seven points as the Bluejays led 7-6. The lead swelled to seven points on two occasions, the last time at 21-14 with 11:29 left in the half.

Even so, Brubacher said his squad didn’t display the teamwork that had earned them wins over Bethany and Sterling.

“We made some shots and Southwestern was lethargic and hadn’t figured out we weren’t guarding anyone on the court, anywhere,” he said.

A 7-0 spurt by the Builders tied the game at 21. The was game tied six more times over the next five minutes.

With the score tied at 32 at the 4:51 mark, Southwestern finished the half with a 15-5 run that carried it to a 47-37 lead at intermission.

Southwestern used 52.9 percent (18-34) field-goal accuracy to build the lead while limiting Tabor to 39.5 percent (15-38).

The Bluejays didn’t heat up much in the second half. In fact, Southwestern hit Tabor with a 10-2 run at the start that inflated the advantage to 18 points at 57-39 with 15:48 to play.

Suddenly, the Moundbuilders looked like a top-20 team.

But the Bluejays didn’t lay down. A pair of Gattis field goals in the paint greased the wheels for Tabor. Then the long-range arsenal kicked in as six of Tabor’s next seven field goals came from beyond the 3-point arc.

Suddenly, the once boisterous and near obnoxious home crowd was sitting on its hands.

Tabor sliced the lead to 69-64 on Jared Reese’s 22-foot bomb with 7:05 remaining.

“Even in that run, we didn’t execute well,” he said. “We just played harder and our effort was better. But you can’t build any confidence off of five or six minutes of good basketball in a 40-minute game.”

Even so, Tabor’s confidence at the time was high and Southwestern’s obviously shaken as the Bluejays pecked away at the lead.

After the Builders increased its lead 73-64 with 4:42 remaining, the Bluejays got their second-and maybe third-wind.

With four free throws from Gattis and two more plus a field goal by Reese, Tabor was within a single point at 75-74 with 2:19 to play and had the ball.

But a turnover caused by Rico Marquez forced Matt Nelson to foul him and Marquez converted both free throws to push the lead to three at 77-74.

After Tabor missed three shots on its next possession, Southwestern’s K.J. Wilkens scored on a floater down the lane with the shot clock expiring to put the Builders in command at 79-74 with less than a minute to play.

Gattis sank a pair of free throws, but Wilkens iced the game with a basket with two seconds remaining to hand Tabor its first conference loss of the season.

Gattis led Tabor with 24 points and 11 rebounds. Reese was the only other Bluejay in double figures with 17. As a team, Tabor hit 38.6 percent (27-70) from the field, including a frigid eight of 27 (29.6 percent) from beyond the 3-point arc.

Marquez led four Southwestern players in double figures with 18 points. The Builders hit 49.2 percent (30-61) for the game.

Tabor was the first team to out-rebound Southwestern this season (42-39), but Brubacher said that statistic was deceiving, too.

“The primary reason we out-rebounded them was because of our atrocious shooting, which caused a lot of balls to be bouncing around,” he said. “We just could not shoot a lick.”

Tabor committed 18 turnovers, leading to 25 Builder points.

With the loss, Tabor fells to 5-5 overall and 2-1 in conference play while Southwestern improves to 11-1 overall and 2-1 in the KCAC.

“I hope we can recover from this quickly,” Brubacher said. “I hope we get back to focusing on executing our game, playing with energy and determination and I hope we do it quickly.”

Coming- Tabor returns to the hardwoods Dec. 30 and 31 when the Bluejays host Northwest Oklahoma State and McKendree College at the Tabor Classic.

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