Tabor defeats Saint Mary, 79-75

Tullio Parry shoots for two during the first half against Saint Mary Saturday. Parry had a double-double performance with 16 points and 12 rebounds in Tabor’s 79-75 win.  Janae Rempel / Free PressThe Tabor College men’s basketball team rebounded from Wednesday’s loss to Friends by defeating Saint Mary Saturday, moving to 14-2 in KCAC play, 17-7 overall.

Saint Mary—Tabor righted the ship following Wednesday’s loss at Friends by defeating the Spires Saturday, 79-75, thus avenging a 95-86 loss to Saint Mary in the teams’ first meeting.

Although not scoring their first basket until 3:34 had passed, the Bluejays took the lead from the start with a pair of free-throws by Julian Winton. However, an 8-7 Bluejay lead turned into a 16-8 deficit thanks in part to two Spire three-pointers made about a minute apart.

Tabor got sped up offensively and committed nine turnovers in the first half, trailing the remainder of it. The Spires made six of 12 three-point attempts to contribute to a 35-28 advantage at halftime.

“We were playing hard defensively,” coach Micah Ratzlaff said. “We were executing very poorly on offense from the very beginning of the game till halftime. (We were) lucky to be down seven, I thought, because we were that bad on offense, but we did play hard.”

The Spires took their largest lead of the night when the game’s leading scorer, Grant Greenberg scored twice in 15 seconds to extend Saint Mary’s lead to 45-36.

But after that, a 9-0 Bluejay run tied the game. A Carter three-pointer gave Tabor its first lead since 8-7, but over the next 1:31, the Spires reclaimed it, 56-50, and built it back to nine, 62-53, with 9:12 to play.

Julian Winton drained a three-pointer after that to ignite a 14-4 rally capped by an alley-oop dunk by DeShun Patterson that gave Tabor the lead, 67-66, with 5:25 left in the game.

After the Spires scored to regain the advantage, Winton scored Tabor’s next five points, including his fourth three of the night. The Spires’ Payton Meek responded with his fifth and final trey, but Tabor maintained the lead, making seven of eight free-throws in the final 26 seconds to lock down the win.

Tabor made 15 of 19 free-throws in the second half (79 percent).

“We just kept coming at them, getting to the free-throw line down the stretch,” Ratzlaff said. “(We were) hitting free-throws, which we haven’t done a great job of lately.”

Ratzlaff credited his defense for slowing the pace of the game.

“We went zone,” he said. “We tried to guard the three-point shot out of it, and they kind of stalled and missed a couple shots.”

Winton led Tabor’s scoring effort with 25 points. Carter scored 18, and Tullio Parry had a double-double performance with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Julian Winton draws a foul during the second half against Saint Mary Saturday. Winton led the Bluejays in scoring with 25 points in Tabor’s 79-75 victory. Phyllis Richert PhotoGreenberg led all scorers with 27 points for Saint Mary.

Friends—Tabor’s 11-game win streak was broken Wednesday in an 87-80 loss to the Falcons.

Davaghndre Jones scored the game’s first four points, and Tabor led by as many as six, 14-8, five minutes in.

Friends took its first lead, 17-16, at the 12:42 mark, but a basket by Lance Carter put Tabor back in front by one. Following a 22-22 tie, the Falcons used a 4-0 run to take the lead for good.

Friends led by as many as eight in the first half, 35-27, then Carter scored four consecutive points. By halftime, Tabor trailed, 38-34.

The Falcons enjoyed an 8-0 run to start the second half before Alan Urrutia drained a three-pointer at the 16:49 mark. After Friends stretched its lead to 51-41, Urrutia scored five points to contribute to a 7-0 Bluejay run that brought Tabor within 51-48 with 11:23 to go. But a 7-0 Falcon swing extended Friends’ lead back to 10.

Friends took its largest lead, 63-51, with 8:25 to play, but over the next 4:34, Tabor outscored the home team, 14-4, to close the gap to 67-65. But although Tabor closed within one a few times, the final time being 71-70, the Bluejays never took the lead. A 9-0 run after that put Friends firmly in front by 10 with 34 seconds left, and Tabor went on to lose by seven.

“They hit big shot after big shot,” coach Micah Ratzlaff said. “They had three guys on their team hit a three for the first time all year. Stuff like that. But on top of that, we couldn’t buy a basket.

“It looked like we were a little slow, but I didn’t feel like guys weren’t trying or anything like that.”

Julian Winton led the Bluejays with 19 points. Carter scored 16, Urrutia 15 and Jones 14. Cody May had 11 rebounds.

The Falcons scored 31 points at the charity stripe with 78 percent accuracy (31-for-40). Tabor made 19 of 32 attempts at the line (59 percent).

From the field, Tabor was 27-for-69 (39 percent). Friends was 24-for-58 (41 percent).

Coming—Tabor, who ranks 21st nationally, will travel to McPherson (5-11, 11-13) Thursday for an 8 p.m. game. The Bluejays will host Ottawa (8-8, 10-13) Saturday at 7 p.m.

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