TABOR: Threshers end Bluejays' season
Tabor men bow out after a 79-70 loss to Bethel
BY RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
You could hear the crowing in the Bluejay locker room Wednesday night when they heard they'd be meeting Kansas Wesleyan in the semifinal round of the KCAC tournament instead of the Bethel Threshers.
After getting humiliated by the Threshers back on Dec. 14, it's no mystery why North Newton wasn't at the top of the Bluejays' list of places they would like most to return to.
Sadly, the joy lasted only until Thursday morning when the Bluejays found out that news must have come from supermarket tabloids.
Much to the Bluejays' chagrin, it was KCAC champion Bethel awaiting them in Saturday afternoon's semifinals in North Newton.
Already a qualifier for the NAIA's National Tournament, the Threshers used a big second half rally to spoil the Bluejays' chance of attending, 79-70.
For the final time, it was the same old story for the Bluejays Saturday with turning the ball over and faltering at the free throw line.
Those problems, mixed with foul trouble, were Tabor's worst enemies. The Bluejays spotted Bethel 24 points off 21 turnovers while shooting a treacherous seven for 15 at the foul line.
Likely the hardest pill for the Bluejays to digest this season, they even hit 47 percent from the floor while holding the Threshers to 38 percent.
"It's hard to explain," coach Don Brubacher said of what went wrong for his team. "It (free throw shooting) was one of those things you look back on and wonder why we shot basically 50 percent or right at when we played Bethel.
"It hurt us in every one of those games even though we managed to win one of those anyway. For some reason, the free throw shooting for us was poor every time we played Bethel."
It was a sad way for seniors Micah Ratzlaff, Scott Brubacher, Matt Fast, Derek Karber, and Kyle Kopper to close out spectacular careers.
A pair of teams fairly evenly matched, the game was the nail-biter it was expected to be.
In the first half alone, the lead changed hands 12 times.
Micah scored eight of his team-high 18 points in the first half on four for seven from the floor with Karber adding nine of his 11 points, too.
Micah's follow at the buzzer gave the Bluejays a 33-30 lead at halftime with Tabor shooting 52 percent in the field.
Hitting a chilly 29 percent from the floor the first half, the Threshers got a big lift in hanging around with the Bluejays committing 11 turnovers.
The Bluejays started to pull away to start the second half with baskets by Karber and Brad Gattis stretching the lead to 37-30 before Garry Albright scored Bethel's first basket 2:15 in.
Albright was a one-man wrecking crew for the Bluejays, stinging them for a game-high 22 points, including a trio of huge threes.
Micah was the sole player Don Brubacher could afford to have in foul trouble.
Once Micah went to the bench after being hit with his fourth foul with 14:11 left in the season, the complexion of the game changed.
"We competed well for extended periods of time with Micah off the court which was good to see," said Brubacher. "The game just got away from us down the stretch, and that happened when Micah was on the court."
Bethel outscored the Bluejays 12-5 in nearly 6:00, using a 19-3 to regain the lead for good, 48-46, after a Ryan Gerber basket with 11:06 left.
Albright flourished in Micah's absence and playing with four fouls, draining six of eight shots for 16 points.
Tabor was never the same team again, even when Micah returned with 8:30 to go.
Even taking the ball to the hole against the Threshers' defense inside was a chore to do.
But the game was still within range for Tabor.
The Bluejays rushed their shots, many of them desperation threes.
Finishing the game five for 26 from downtown, the three point line was of no help to the Bluejays either.
With time now becoming the Bluejays' biggest opponent, they put the Threshers at the foul line seven times in the final 1:35 where Bethel made 10 of 14 to keep pushing the lead.
Fresh off a game-saving performance just three days earlier, Tyson Ratzlaff finished with seven points and a team-high 10 assists before fouling out with under 30 seconds left.
Tabor got a big spark off the bench in the waning moments of the game from Jared Reece, who finished with seven points.
While most coaches and teams would be satisfied with an 18-11 record overall and going 12-6 in an evenly matched KCAC, it was a underachieving year at Tabor.
"For most programs, it would be a good season," Brubacher said of his team's final mark. "For Tabor, it's not.
"I don't think we ever did (reach full potential,) we did in stretches. In most every game we played, we had stretches where we played about as well as we could have.
"When we're talking about putting complete games together in conference, I don't think we had a single game that we played fully up to our potential."
Southwestern
Somewhere down the road, Bluejay die-hards might end up talking about Tyson Ratzlaff's game-winning shot in Wednesday night's game against Southwestern in the same perspective as the NFL's 'Drive' or 'Catch.'
Tyson's final two of a game-high 17 points with 1.6 seconds left allowed the Bluejays to prolong their season, prevailing in an ugly contest against the Moundbuilders, 57-55.
He finished the game with a double-double, pulling down a team-high 10 rebounds.
Micah finished with 16 points, all coming from inside to go along with a game-high nine assists, and Grant Brubacher contributed 10 points.
Ugly is an understatement, and ironically, turning the basketball over didn't play the factor in deciding the outcome as much as poor shooting did.
It's not everyday a team shoots 32 percent from the field and lives to talk about it much like the Bluejays can.
They walked on the court, but must have forgotten to bring their game with them.
Swept by the Bluejays during the regular season, Southwestern appeared to be more ready to play than what Tabor was.
Both teams where blasted by a cold draft the first half with Tabor mustering a season-low 20 percent from the floor.
Southwestern didn't fare much better, hitting 10-for-30 to lead 20-17 at halftime.
Ranking third to last in KCAC perimeter shooting, Tabor couldn't get anything to fall from downtown on a two-for-18 outing.
Cold shooting dashed any chance of either team pulling away with the lead changing hands nine times in the second half and 13 ties.
Second in field goal shooting to Micah, Gattis was as cold as ice, making just two of 13 from the field.
Even the shots he normally makes with ease were impossible for Gattis to get to fall.
His basket with 4:31 left in the game gave Tabor its largest lead, 51-46.
Then Carl Dunbar scored all five of the Moundbuilders' points, sawing Tabor's lead back to 51-50.
Southwestern used a 4-1 run in the next 1:22 to regain the lead for the eighth time, 54-52 with 2:00 to go.
Tabor outscored the Moundbuilders 5-1 in the next 1:46 to set up Tyson's winning basket.
Tabor 70, Bethel 79
Total points: S. Brubacher 8, T. Ratzlaff 7, Kopper 5, Gattis 8, M. Ratzlaff 18, Bettles 2, Reese 7, Karber 11, Myers 4.
Rebounds: S. Brubacher 3, G. Brubacher 4, Shaffer 1, T. Ratzlaff 3, Randall 2, M. Ratzlaff 5, Reese 3, Karber 6, Myers 3.
Assists: S. Brubacher 2, G. Brubacher 1, T. Ratzlaff 10, Randall 1, Gattis 1, M. Ratzlaff 3, Reese 1, Karber 1, Myers 1.
Steals: T. Ratzlaff 1, Gattis 2, M. Ratzlaff 2, Karber 1.
