Short-handed Bluejays outlast McPherson
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
A team that struggles with consistency, Tabor suffered a loss of one of its most consistent players in a 69-60 loss Thursday to Bethel, when senior leader Andy Brubacher dislocated his shoulder.
Luckily the Bluejays (3-6, 1-1 KCAC) were able to overcome the absence of Brubacher and come from behind Saturday in Hillsboro to get a much needed win over McPherson (6-4, 1-1 KCAC), 73-64.
"We were suddenly faced with how we're going to play some of our conference schedule without Andy," said Bluejay coach and Andy's father Don Brubacher.
What it did was force Tabor to seek more contributions from its bench. What the Bluejays got was a combined 61 points from the trio of Tyler Weinbrenner, Greg Munroe, and Mike Willis and production from those who played.
Weinbrenner had a game-high 21 points, including 5-of-8 from long range and a team-high five assists while Munroe and Willis each had 20 points.
What really made a difference was the Bluejays dominating the rebounds, 41-25, with Tabor getting 13 second-chance points from 12 offensive rebounds.
"There were some things I was really pleased with," Don Brubacher said. "Our effort rebounding was the best we've had this year by quite a lot.
"I personally thought it was the difference in the game. If we'd have had the weak effort on the boards that we've had in a number of games, I'm not sure we'd have ended up on the positive end of things."
The Bluejays have had their share of tough breaks starting games, and Saturday was no different.
Seven minutes into the game, McPherson had a 9-4 lead with the Bluejays being generous, turning the ball over and playing foolishly.
Half of Tabor's 15 turnovers were passes to nobody, something the Bulldogs used against themas they used 21 points off mistakes to stay in the game.
"I was most displeased about how poorly we took care of the basketball," he said. "We didn't get into any type of offensive flow."
McPherson led by as many as nine, 21-12, midway through the first half before Tabor got a 12-0 run to regain the lead, as Weinbrenner flushed his first three to make it a 22-21 game with just over 6:00 left.
Willis scored four times in the final 5:25 to help give the Bluejays a 32-27 edge at halftime to lead all scorers with 12 points.
The Bulldogs closed the gap to 32-31, but Tabor did enough to maintain its lead, which it would stretch as far as 53-43.
That wasn't easy, though, even with shooting 50 percent from the field the second half and 48 for the game.
The Bulldogs shot a nearly identical 52 percent from the floor. Mitch Arnett was a perfect 8-for-8 on the night, scoring 12 of his team-high 18 points the second half.
The Bluejays face a rough two-game road stretch this week starting Thursday in Leavenworth against St. Mary, and ending Saturday in Ottawa against the Braves.
