Win over Friends moves TC men into first place

The Tabor Bluejay men won a hard-fought contest Saturday against Friends University, 75-66, to move into a three-way tie for the Kansas Athletic Conference lead.

?We came out extremely hard on the defensive end, which set the tone,? said coach Micah Ratzlaff. ?This team is built around defense and taking care of the basketball.?

Phillip Jimenez?s three-point basket gave Tabor an early 3-2 lead. A couple minutes later a dunk from teammate Damon Dechant tied the game at 5-5 with 15:46 left in the half.

The Bluejays extended their lead to 17-7, thanks to a three-point shot from Max Frise with 13:15 left in the half. Kyle Wallace?s three-pointer pushed Tabor?s lead to 27-14 at the 7:20 mark and the Bluejays led 39-20 with a little under three minutes left.

But the Falcons? Reggie Britton went on a nine-point scoring run, including back-to-back three-pointers.

Lawson Kingsley?s long three-point shot with 38 seconds left gave the Bluejays a 42-31 lead. After three Falcon free throws, the Bluejays went into halftime with a 42-34 advantage.

The Falcons took back the lead, 44-43, early in the second half, and the lead changed hands several times in the ensuing minutes.

With the score tied, 54-54, Dechant gave the lead to the Bluejays with a dramatic dunk with a little over six minutes left to play. Another dunk by Frise a minute later gave the Bluejays a two-point lead over the Falcons, 58-56. The game was tied twice more, 58-58 and 60-60, in the next two minutes.

Despite shaky free-throw shooting at the beginning of the second half, the Bluejays began cashing in down the home stretch. Two charities from Ryan Chippeaux with 2:19 left gave the Bluejays a foutr-point lead, 64-60, and Tabor to begin to pull away.

The Bluejays made 10 points off of free throws in the last minute and a half of the game, giving them an eight-point lead with just seconds left. A dunk at the buzzer from Chippeaux gave Tabor its nine-point win.

?We?ve been struggling all year long at the free throw line,? Ratzlaff said. ?We?ll keep practicing.?

He thought the players started to focus a bit better as the second half went on, and that ?the points started to mean more as the clock wound down.?

The Bluejays had four players score in the double digits. Kingsley led the way with 15 points, Dechant added 13 and Dylan Clark-Kaneable and Frise each had 10.

Southwestern? The used 80 percent shooting from the floor to beating the Moundbuilders 73-56 after trailing by a point at halftime.

?It was a clean game,? coach Micah Ratzlaff said. ?It was one of those games where we were down one at half and the guys responded.?

The Bluejays led early, 12-9, but the Builders narrowed the lead to 19-18 with 7:30 left in the half and went into the locker room at intermission with a 27-26 lead.

Tabor came out strong after halftime and built a 41-31 lead with 13:30 left in the game. The Bluejays pushed the lead to 60-42 with 7:30 left as Tabor made 20 of its 25 field-goal attempts in the second half.

Coming?With two wins for the week, Tabor (6-2, 12-5) moved into a three-way tie with Saint Mary and Sterling for the KCAC lead.

The Bluejays will host Bethany (5-3, 7-11) Thursday Thursday?s then make the trip to Leavenworth to take on Saint Mary (6-2, 13-7) Saturday.

?We?re happy to be at the top of the conference,? Ratzlaff said. ?But we have to keep pushing.?

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