Tabor men fend off Friends
BY RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
Bluejay men's basketball coach Don Brubacher knew already Saturday that Monday's opponent, Friends University, was going to be out to get them.
That can be expected from a team that leads its conference, or is at least in a two-way tie for first.
The visiting Falcons almost did.
A sluggish night on rebounding by the Bluejays set up 18 second-chance points to help the Falcons almost climb out of the hole.
But the Bluejays were able to overcome their inability to rebound and a sub-par defensive game to outlast Friends, 69-67.
The win still leaves the Bluejays in a two-way tie for first place in the KCAC with Ottawa at 12-4 and 14-12 overall.
"A big part of it tonight was that we simply had difficulty guarding the entire court," said Brubacher. "We got outrebounded 22 to 34, that was a huge factor. They're a lot bigger than we are. We really struggled to get rebounds all night."
One of Tabor's biggest flaws of the season has been protecting a lead.
They gave the Falcons a huge boost back in the game, giving up a 15-6 edge in offensive rebounding.
The Falcons got seven of their 29 first-half points from second chances, keeping them hot on Tabor's trail at intermission, 30-29.
Despite Tabor shooting 50 percent from the floor in the first half and the Falcons draining 13 of 27, neither team could pull away.
In the first half alone, the two juggled the lead nine times with the score being knotted 13.
And better than half of Friends' first half points came from Jeff McMillin, who had a game-high 22 from 8 of 11 from the field.
"McMillin just absolutely destroyed us down low," Brubacher said. "We didn't keep the basketball away from him."
Trailing 29-27 with :39 seconds left in the opening half, Scott Brubacher's only triple of the game came with one second left and sent Tabor up at halftime.
The lead changed hands six more times throughout the first first five minutes of the second half before Ernest Nortey put Tabor up for good, 39-38, at the 14:58 mark.
Giving up a good three inches in height to the Falcons' Jonathan Jones, Nortey still scored a team-high 15 points before fouling out late in the game.
The Bluejays' lead stretched to nine, 47-38, when Jeremiah Randall canned three of his 11 points with just under 13:00 left.
Fifty seconds later after a Tyson Ratzlaff-free throw, the Bluejays had their largest lead of the night, 50-40.
Ratzlaff was the only other Bluejay in double figures with 12 points while dragging down a team-high five rebounds.
Through the first 9:25 of the second half, the Bluejays matched their nine point lead four times.
Then came Tabor's uncanny trend of not being able to build off its lead by cooling off from the field.
In the final 7:26 of the game, Tabor had to make do with field goals from Ratzlaff and Scott Brubacher.
The Falcons, with the help of three points from Kurtis Marcotte, chopped the lead to 59-57 with a 6-0 run with 3:52 to go.
Tabor's 17 for 24 at the free line in the second half helped pull through in the closing 1:30.
The Bluejays stayed afloat with perfect nights at the line by Scott Brubacher, Randall, and Jimmy Janzen, finishing off the Falcons.
Tabor travels to North Newton tonight to take on the Bethel Threshers at 8 p.m. before wrapping up the regular season at home Saturday, against St. Mary.
Saturday's game time is 7 p.m.
Kansas Wesleyan
Tabor survived another slugfest and a brief power outage Saturday night against the visiting Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes.
Behind a balanced scoring attack by three-fifths of their starting lineup, the Bluejays downed the Coyotes, 80-71.
Ratzlaff scored a team-high 18 points and seven rebounds, Nortey and Randall had 15 each and the Brubacher brothers added 11 a piece.
All that saved Tabor was its 42-33 first half as both teams scored 38 in the second.
The Bluejays led by as many as 19, only to have the Coyotes shave it to eight with 2:25 left in the game.
Nortey made it an 80-71 final, throwing down a dunk with :57 seconds to go.
Tabor 69, Friends 67
Friends — 29 38 67
Tabor — 30 39 69
Friends — James O'Brien 10, J. McMillin 22, Kurtis Marcotte 9, Jonathan Jones 12, Adam Palace 2, Preston Peterson 2, Dave McMillin 10, Totals 25-53 3-18 14-20 67.
Tabor — S. Brubacher 7, Grant Brubacher 1, Janzen 8, Ratzlaff 12, Kyle Kopper 2, Randall 11, Nortey 15, Lance Redetzke 6, Derrek Karber 7, Totals 22-43 3-15 22-32 69.
