Men
The Tabor men (11-5, 17-8) fell at home tonight in a heart-breaker upset courtesy of Southwestern College (8-8, 16-9). The loss drops them below conference rival Sterling College (12-4, 16-10) in the KCAC standings.
?Ugly,? said Bluejays coach Micah Ratzlaff about the game. ?Worst loss of the season for us, definitely.?
The Bluejays took and held a narrow early lead over the Builders, helped out by three-point shots from Lawson Kingsley and Gavin Serene in the first 10 minutes of play time. However, the Builders were never far behind and they managed to tie the game, 18-18, with just over two minutes left in the half. The Bluejays took care of business, though, putting up a four-point margin, 22-20, going into the locker room at halftime.
The second half began a long basket-by-basket battle, with the Bluejays clinging to a narrow lead throughout the early minutes of the second half. The Bluejays? hard-fought lead began to unravel, however, when the Builders tied the game again, 35-35, with just under five minutes left to play.
The Bluejays? Damon Dechant made a basket off a Kyle Wallace assist and tossed up another in an athletic play backward over his head, but it was barely enough to keep the Bluejays ahead, 41-37.
The Builders tied the game, 41-41, with a minute left on the clock. They stopped the Bluejays, drove back toward their basket, and were fouled with two seconds left. David King made one of two free throws for the Builders to give them the one-point victory, 42-41.
?Careless with the ball, all game,? said Ratzlaff, summarizing the reasons for their defeat. ?No confidence on the offensive end at all. Those two things, turnovers and lack of confidence.?
The Bluejays had several costly turnovers in the last few minutes of the game. Overall, the Builders scored 12 points off of Bluejays turnovers.
?The guys need to step up and make plays,? said Ratzlaff. ?We?ve got to find a way to bounce back.?
Despite the loss Dechant had another solid night for his team. He was the only Bluejays player in double digits with 13 points. The Builders? Ethan Randolph and Chris Nelson both scored 14 points for the night.
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Women
The Tabor women (7-9, 10-16) lost to Southwestern (12-4, 9-6) tonight for the second time this season, this time at home, 64-51.
?We came really ready to play tonight,? said Bluejays coach Shawn Winter. ?We were pleased with the way we came out and focused and played?I think our fatigue more than anything really killed us in the second half.?
The Bluejays started out strong with an eight-point scoring run, including a three-pointer from the Bluejays? Whitney Polosky. Three back-to-back three-point shots later, the Bluejays led the Builders, 11-8.
Despite the Builders? efforts, the Bluejays capably held on to a comfortable lead throughout the first half. The Builders managed to cut the Bluejays? lead to 8 points by halftime, but the Bluejays were still ahead, 28-20, going in to the locker room.
The Builders began to turn on the heat in the second half. They nibbled down the Bluejays? lead, tying the game for the first time at 32 points a little under five minutes into the second half. The Builders stole their first lead a minute later off of two free throws.
Refusing to be daunted, the Bluejays went on a five-point scoring run to win back the lead, 37-36. However, the Builders took it back again the next minute.
A three-point shot from the Bluejays? Jocelyn Cook put them back on top a short two minutes later, but the Builders tied it and took back the lead. Overall, there were two ties and five lead changes in the game.
Once the Builders took the lead with five minutes left, there was no stopping them. They steadily increased their lead, scoring 14 points in the last five minutes of the ball game to give them a somewhat deceiving 13-point margin of victory of the Bluejays.
?We felt like they out-manned us, and we were going to have a hard time matching up, and two because of our lack of depth,? said Winters. ?We ran out of gas in the second half and they hit some shots.?
He said he was proud of his team for battling back and making a game out of it. He also said his team shot well, but the Builders had 24 more shot attempts and the Bluejays had 10 more turnovers than the Builders.
?I don?t think the score is that indicative,? said Winters. ?We felt we didn?t get beat by thirteen.?
Katlyn Mary had another solid performance for the Bluejays, leading them in scoring with 12 points. Teammates Amy Jo Maphet and Polosky also contributed 13 and 11 points respectively.
The Builders had two players in the double digits; Brett Bates posted an impressive 23 points on the night and Tylar Hartfield scored 11 points.
