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Bluffton College shot a season-high 75% from 3-point range, hitting 12-of-16 shots from beyond the arc, to collect their first Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference victory of the season Saturday afternoon 93-83 at Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky.
Bluffton finished the game with a 63.3% effort for total field goals, also a season-high, and held off a second-half Transy rally to improve to 7-9 overall this season and 1-5 in the HCAC. TU falls to 6-9 overall and 0-6 in the HCAC.
The win was head coach Guy Neal’s 142nd at Bluffton, which moves him into sole possession of second place on the BC all-time wins list. Glenn Snyder is tops on that list with 150 wins.
Senior Mike Leimeister scored a game-high 29 points and freshman Scott Bergman, in his first collegiate start, scored a career-high 20 points as that duo combined to hit 6-of-8 three-pointers in the game.
Seniors Marcus Bixler and Derek DeNero were both 2-for-2 from trey land and finished with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Freshman Darren Clark added a career-high nine points.
Bluffton snaps a three game losing skid with the victory and will host Defiance College Wednesday night at 7:30 in Founders Hall.
Bluffton led by as many as 17 points in the first half at 32-15 with 5:25 remaining before halftime but the Pioneers went on a 13-0 run at that point to cut the lead to four points with 1:31 left. BC led 38-29 at the intermission and pushed their lead back up to 18 points with 11:55 remaining in the game.
Transylvania clawed their way back into the game, however, to again trail by just four points with under six minutes to go, but the Pioneers got no closer as Leimeister scored Bluffton’s next 11 points to keep Bluffton ahead.
