The Tabor College men?s basketball team defeated Southwestern, 77-68, Saturday.
Southwestern led by as many as five early on, but after a 9-9 tie, Tabor scored nine unanswered points. The Bluejays took their first double-digit lead, 28-17, when Andrew Thomas scored at the 7:32 mark, and Tabor led by as many as 15, including 39-24, when Jonathan Gibson made a basket with 3:34 left in the half.
Those were the Bluejays? final points of the half; however, as Southwestern used a 13-0 run to close the gap to 39-37 at halftime.
?We quit playing,? Ratzlaff said of the first half?s final minutes. ?The ball movement was terrible during about a two-minute stretch. It was about five full possessions where I think we only had one or two passes, literally, on our offensive end, and we didn?t reverse it, not once. We shot it and they got the rebound and then got run-outs.
?We didn?t get 15 points up by doing that. It?s just terrible basketball. Our guys should know better than that.?
After the break, the teams more or less traded scores and battled to a 56-56 tie with 8:58 left in the game.
From there, Tabor burst with a 14-2 run that included scoring contributions from Dewayne Biggs, Thomas, Lance Carter and Gibson, for a 70-58 Bluejay lead with 4:29 left in the game.
The closest Southwestern got after that was within 72-64, and the Bluejays went on to win by nine.
?We were doing a good job on defense man-to-man initially,? Ratzlaff said. ?We would get them to shoot a tough initial shot, but then they were rebounding until they scored.
?Then they started scoring on the initial shot because you give them that confidence. We went to our zone, and we did a really good job, except for rebounding, out of our zone. I thought we did a really good job of guarding and contesting and not fouling in our zone. The zone just completely shut them down.?
Thomas led all scorers with 23 points. Carter added 13 and JT Nemit 10.
Ottawa?Tabor cruised to a 90-71 victory Wednesday.
Tabor shot the ball well for the game, making 35 of 59 attempts (59.3 percent), including shooting 53.3 percent from three (8-15).
?I thought offensively, we played about as unselfishly as you possibly could, but also played with a ton of confidence,? coach Micah Ratzlaff said. ?I just thought that on the road, guys, for whatever reason, were extremely focused.?
The Braves took a 9-5 lead out of the gate, thanks to seven points from the game?s leading scorer, Preston Oakes, who finished with 27 on the night.
After that, John Jedneak scored to ignite an 11-0 burst to put Tabor in front, never to trail again.
Lance Carter and Jake Arck accounted for Tabor?s next 12 points for a 28-18 advantage, and the Bluejays led by as many as 13 with 3:55 left in the first half. The Braves trimmed Tabor?s lead to 42-38 before baskets by Jedneak and Carter gave Tabor a 46-38 margin at intermission.
The teams traded scores after the break. Oakes scored Ottawa?s first nine points, but a string of nine put the Bluejays firmly in front, 59-44, with 14:36 to play, and Tabor led by double figures the rest of the way.
With continued success offensively?Tabor shot a blistering 68 percent from the field in the second half (17-25)?the Bluejays increased their lead and led by as many as 82-55 when Andrew Thomas scored with 5:31 to play. Ratzlaff began clearing his bench, and Tabor cruised to the 19-point win.
?Everybody was pretty much on the same page,? Ratzlaff said. ?I thought our rotations were pretty good. Everybody played really hard, and they stayed positive. It?s a great road win for us.?
Five Bluejays scored in double figures, led by Carter with 17 points, Jedneak with 15, Dewayne Biggs with 13, and Arck and Malik Brooks with 12 apiece.
Coming?Tabor (8-2, 11-10) was scheduled to play an exhibition game at Oral Roberts Tuesday. The Bluejays, who are tied with Friends in first place in the KCAC, will travel to Wichita Wednesday to face the Falcons (8-2, 11-10) at 8 p.m. Tabor will play at the University of Saint Mary (7-3, 15-6) Saturday at 4 p.m.
