Saturday, February 10, 2001
Founders Hall
Preceded by the annual Alumni Game, the Bluffton College men’s basketball team hosts Thomas More College this afternoon in Founders Hall. Following today’s non-league contest, BC will host two Heartland Conference games next week as the regular season winds down and the Beavers prepare for the HCAC tournament.
The 2001 Heartland Conference title is still a long way from being decided, and as the teams jockey for position in the upcoming HCAC tourney, Bluffton is still mathematically in the hunt for an HCAC first round game in Founders Hall on February 20. For that to become a reality, however, Bluffton will have to leapfrog Defiance and Mount St. Joseph in the league standings because both schools own the tiebreaker over BC thanks to a season sweep of the series.
Bluffton is coming off an 88-65 loss at co-league-leader Manchester College on Wednesday that marked the first loss of the season for the Beavers to an Indiana school. BC connected on 24 of 28 free throw attempts and tied a season low with just eight turnovers in the contest, but shot 26% from the floor in the second half, while at the same time seeing Manchester shoot a blistering 60% from the field in the same half. Travis Elsass led the Beavers with 20 points, while Ben Coole added 16 points and Rod Overmyer collected 15 points. Manchester, ranked #6 in the latest NCAA Midwest Region Coaches' Poll, improved to 15-6 overall and 6-4 in the HCAC to join Hanover atop the league standings.
These two teams met on January 20th in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, with Bluffton claiming a 79-75 come-from-behind victory. The Saints led at halftime 37-34 and led by double-digits midway through the second half, but two 3-pointers in the final eight minutes of the game from Chris Sheldon and Rod Overmyer and buckets from Elsass and Ben Coole erased an eight point deficit with seven minutes to play as BC won their fourth game in a row. Thomas More led 75-74 with under a minute to play, but Overmyer nailed his third trey of the game to give BC a 77-75 lead with 58 seconds to go. Sheldon added two free throws with 14 seconds left to seal the win for Bluffton. Five Bluffton players scored in double figures, led by Overmyer with 19 points. Sheldon scored a career-high 17 points, including three treys, while Elsass added 16 points. Coole collected 14 points and led BC with 10 rebounds, three blocked shots and six assists.
These two teams faced off in an overtime thriller last season in Founders Hall, which Bluffton won 83-82. This season Thomas More features one of the regions top post players in 6-6 junior Corey Grace, who is averaging 18.6 points and 11.1 rebounds per game. The Bluffton perimeter game will aim to continue its dominance, as BC leads the HCAC in 3-pointers made and assist-to-turnover ratio. Four BC players rank in the top 20 in the HCAC in scoring, including Overmyer, who ranks 4th in scoring (15.0 ppg), 2nd in free throw shooting (.868), 3rd in 3-point shooting (.435) and 3-pointers made (47).
The two first place teams in the Heartland Conference will do battle today as Manchester hosts Hanover. Elsewhere, Defiance hosts Anderson and Franklin hosts Mount St. Joseph.
