No room at top of KCAC for Bluejays
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
Playing the biggest game of the regular season Saturday against the Southwestern Moundbuilders with a share of the top spot in the KCAC up for grabs, Hillsboro was the last place the Bluejays could afford to be shorthanded inside.
Chris Metcalf was out with the flu, and Pat Miller was saddled with foul trouble.
Without an established scorer in the post, the Bluejays had to change their entire game plan and try to shoot their way to a win from outside.
Ice-cold shooting killed the Bluejays in Winfield and it did again Saturday as they shot a woeful 35 percent from the floor and a paltry 13 from outside.
The 'Builders made sure they stayed in sole possession of first place, running away with a 70-57 win and leave Tabor (11-10, 8-4 KCAC) in the thick of the chase for second place.
"We needed to have Pat on the floor for 25 minutes or more with Chris out," a seething Bluejay coach Don Brubacher said. "Instead, he (Pat) played seven minutes and fouled out and that makes the game really, really difficult for us.
"We're playing completely different lineups, we're trying to adapt to completely different roles so that makes it just a huge challenge. And we shot the ball really badly again so that makes it another huge challenge."
Challenging the 'Builders was something the Bluejays really never did, playing uphill the entire game and falling behind by as many as 15 the first half.
Matt Nelson and Jared Reese helped the Bluejays pull as close as four in the first 6:35 of the game.
The two finished with 12 and 13 points, respectively, with Nelson sinking a pair of threes.
Tabor features several players that are potential threats from beyond the arc with Grant and Andy Brubacher, Nelson, Reese, Brad Gattis, Tyler Weinbrenner, and Jason Dechant all able to light it up from outside.
'Potential' was the key word as the seven went a combined miserable three-for-23.
But the Bluejays were ice-cold everywhere, hitting eight-for 25 the first half, missing all seven three-point shots, and making just seven-of-18 from the free-throw line.
Tabor would have been in more trouble than 37-23 at the break if the 'Builders hadn't been worse at the foul line, making five-for-14.
Grant Brubacher made it a 41-32 game barely over 2:30 in for one of the four times Tabor was faced with a single-digit deficit.
Grant buried a three and Gattis added a basket to help fuel the Bluejays' best offensive output of the game, a 7-0 run to close the gap to 49-46 with just under 9:00 left in the game.
Then Tabor got more back-breaking villainy from the KCAC's third-leading scorer, Ricky Kendrick, along with the 'Builders switching to a zone defense.
Already with a trio of threes after erupting for 13 points in the first half, Kendrick buried back-to-back triples to seal the deal for Southwestern.
"They went zone and we couldn't make the adjustment," Don Brubacher said. "I should've used a time-out to get us into a zone offense, but it's really very simple. It's something we know, but we just did not get focused.
"Part of that is also the fact that we're used to having different people play inside against that zone so we're trying to figure out how to play offense with entirely different personnel on the court."
It was Kendrick's last three that caused Don Brubacher's blood to boil with the shot looking more like pass-blocking in football instead of working to get an open look.
"The first (three) one was a defensive error on our part, the second one, we didn't have a chance to guard because of the play that was allowed on the court," said Don Brubacher.
"And that was the ball game. When the second three went into the basket, the basketball game was basically over."
The Bluejays still battled back with Gattis finishing with a double-double with team-highs 18 points and 11 rebounds.
His final basket with 4:13 left got Tabor back within nine, 59-50.
With a desperate attempt to get back into the game, the Bluejays could've used Reggie Miller as they threw up brick after brick from behind the arc.
Southwestern didn't shoot the ball much better from the field, hitting 37 percent and a modest, identical 41 percent in free-throws.
Thirty-five percent from three-point range isn't real impressive, but it is when the Bluejays hit 13 percent along with Southwestern using its physical play to dominate the backboards, 60-42.
The Bluejays face a pair of challenges on the road this week starting Thursday with a certain physical battle expected in McPherson.
Tabor closes out the week Saturday with a 7 p.m. tip-off against the Ottawa Braves, a team that beat the Bluejays in Hillsboro to start 2006.
