Bluejays take first in KCAC with St. Mary win
All season long, it's been the Bluejay men's basketball team atop the KCAC standings in a tie with the St. Mary Spires.
In perhaps the most anticipated match up in the league so far this season Monday night in Leavenworth against the Spires, the Bluejays finally gained control over the top spot, toppling St. Mary on the road, 82-70.
Tabor, despite trailing narrowly at intermission, 35-33, overcame a hostile environment and a grueling three-hour road trip to move within a game of .500 at 9-10 overall and 7-2 in the KCAC.
Scott Brubacher scored a season-high 21 points.
On Saturday night in Hillsboro against the Bethel Threshers, the Bluejays played arguably their best game of the season in trouncing the Threshers, 68-51.
Tabor hit a blistering 61 percent from the field, hitting 67 percent in the first half.
The Bluejays got a balanced scoring attack with 15 points a piece coming from the duo of Jimmy Janzen and Ernest Nortey.
Nortey finished with a double-double, cleaning the backboard 12 times. Brubacher scored 14 points and Tyson Ratzlaff added 13 to go along his game-high eight assists and six steals.
On its best night shooting of the season, Tabor was also 12 of 14 from the foul line and 4 of 7 from outside the arc.
But on Jan. 17 at Salina, the hosting Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes snapped the Bluejays' six-game KCAC winning streak with a 71-69 surprise.
By looking at the statistics, it was hard to see how the Bluejays could have stumbled.
Tabor shot a warm 59 percent from the field while the Coyotes were 27 of 56 for the night.
Turnovers were in favor of Tabor, committing 15 opposed to KW's 18. The Bluejays even outrebounded the Coyotes, 28-26.
In a game that close, more often than not it's the team that converts at the free throw line which prevails.
On a night where 77 percent wasn't good enough to win, the Bluejays only got to the line five times in the second half, where they connected on three.
Nortey scored a season-high 24 points while pulling down a game-high seven rebounds.
The Bluejays host Southwestern today before traveling to McPherson Saturday. Today's game is slated for 8 p.m., with Saturday's scheduled for 7 p.m.
