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SKILLITER!

Paulding @ Bluffton

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#1 slice slice baby

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Posted 07 January 2012 - 04:45 AM

i'm sooooooo hoping you'll be doing an article for us on the Paulding/Btown game from last night which resulted in the Pirates' 1st season win! :clap: (sorry for my excitement, Panthers! :blush: )

I was really looking forward to seeing the LD (LD = lowdown) on the double OT game vs Kenton the other night and didn't see it anywhere, so, just thought I'd let you know that some of us are very happy about the Pirates' 1st win and would :wub: to get the details, if you have them! :D



sincerely,
bated breath :)

p.s. fwiw, your contributions are & have been greatly appreciated! :)
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#2 lepiota

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Posted 07 January 2012 - 08:58 AM

Kind of off the topic Slice, but did you know that most can only wait with "bated breath" for less than a minute without some discomfort? Also try actually doing something while holding your breath. It's only good for about 30 seconds.

No need to thank me. Lepiota is my name....minutia is my game.

#3 Skilliter

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Posted 12 February 2012 - 04:24 PM

Wow... Completely missed this topic. So Sorry. Here's the story I wrote for the bluffton news.


KENTON, Ohio- On New Year’s Eve I was asked what my wishes were for the upcoming year. My answer was simple. I said that all I want in 2012 is the chance to write about a Bluffton Pirate Boys’ basketball win. I thought that my wish would be granted early in the year as the Pirates took a 15 point lead into halftime Tuesday at Kenton High School. However, the Wildcats clawed back into the game and won a double-overtime thriller, 65-63, on a buzzer beating, 18 foot jump shot by senior Brice Fackler.
The first half went exceptionally well for the Pirates as they stormed out to a 16-4 first quarter lead. Bluffton Coach Todd Boblitt said, “We really established ourselves early in the game offensively. We got the shots we wanted to take and the kind of rhythm that we wanted and just got off to a really good start.” The Pirates used a slow paced offense that consisted of a lot of passes around the perimeter to open up good shots to shoot 4-6 from inside the three-point arc and 1-2 from outside it in the first quarter. The Bluffton first quarter effort was led by Michael Donley’s 7 points. At the other end, Kenton struggled to find any scoring rhythm, only hitting 2 of 5 shots from two point range and missing all of their 4 attempts from three-point range.
The Wildcats used balance to turn things around in the second quarter as 6 different players contributed to the 15 Kenton second quarter points (Sean Kelly, Maty Mauk, Brice Fackler, Justin Sawmiller, Caleb Halsey, and Noah Furbish). However, Bluffton continued to rack up points, using the same kind of offense from the first quarter to score 18 more in the second. The Pirates were led by Matt Gillett as the senior scored 12 second quarter points on a perfect 4-4 effort from the field and 4-4 effort from the free throw line, sending the Pirates into the locker room up by a score of 34-19.
At halftime, Gillett led all scorers with 17 total points on 5-6 from the field, 1-1 from three, and 4-4 from the free throw line. Sean Kelly and Caleb Halsey led Kenton at the half with 5 and 4 points respectively.
The Wildcats came out in the second half with a smaller lineup, replacing two 6 foot players with smaller ones in an attempt to use athleticism to speed up the slow tempo the Pirates relied on in the first half. “We knew they were going to turn the pressure up and start trapping us and coming at us a little more. They did that more in the second half, and we played into their hands for periods of time where we were playing a little bit too reckless with the ball and playing too fast instead of just being in control. They just got the momentum to swing their way,” said Coach Boblitt about his team’s second half woes. Kenton used that momentum to outscore the Pirates 19-8 in the quarter. They were led by senior Maty Mauk’s 8 points and Brice Fackler’s 5. A Michael Donley layup at the buzzer pushed the Pirate lead to just four points going into the final frame, 42-38.
Sean Kelly opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer that was quickly followed by a steal and a lay-up by junior Caleb Halsey as the Wildcats took their first lead of the game, 43-41, with 7:30 remaining in regulation. From there, it was a fight to the finish. The Wildcat lead was erased by a small 7-0 Pirate run as Gillett and Donley drained back to back two-pointers and R.J. Stratton added a three to put the Pirates up 49-43 with 3:01 left in the quarter. After a few traded buckets the score stood at 51-47 in Bluffton’s favor as Kenton called a timeout with 2:21 remaining. From there, Maty Mauk took over, scoring the final 7 points for the Wildcats and sending the two teams into overtime for the second straight year.
There are not many things more exciting in basketball than a four minute overtime period, and this one brought just about as much excitement as a spectator, player, or coach will ever see. The score went back and forth for the whole period with a total of 8 lead changes in only 4 minutes. Kenton took the lead with 3 seconds left on a lay-up by Caleb Halsey. Then, with time expiring and his team down by two, Matt Gillett threw up a half-court shot that just barely beat the buzzer. The shot fell well short of the basket, but Gillett was hacked on the shot, drawing a foul and earning three free-throws. He connected on the first two, tying the game at 60-60, but was unable to hit the third, sending the teams into the second overtime of the night.
The second overtime brought even more excitement than the first. With the score tied at 63-63 with 5 seconds left, Kenton inbounded the ball, made two passes, and found Brice Fackler standing open, 18 feet from the basket. Boblitt said, “That was just a scramble… both teams were out of timeouts and we may have extended the pressure a little too far and they were able to get the ball too deep and get an opportunity at about 18 feet… I would have rather seen him take that shot at about 40 feet.” Fackler drained the shot from the elbow, sending the Wildcats to the locker room with their 4th win of the season.
Maty Mauk scored 19 points to lead the Wildcats on the night. He shot 2-4 from the field, 3-10 from the three-point line, and 6-7 from the free throw stripe. Other scorers for the Wildcats included Sean Kelly (10 points), Colyn Blackford (2 points), Brice Fackler (15 points), Justin Sawmiller (5 points), Caleb Halsey (11 points), and Noah Furbush (3 points).
Matt Gillett led all scorers for the night with his 29 point effort. The senior shot 6-12 from the field, 1-3 from three, and 14-18 from the free-throw line. He was joined in the books by Donley (21 points), Keshaun Hughes (4 points), Austin Bricker (2 points), R.J. Stratton (5 points), Wes Barry (2 points), and Michael Liska (4 points).
The Pirates shot 17-36 (46%) from the field, 2-8 (25%) from three, and 23-31 (74%) from the free-throw line. Kenton shot 17-26 (65%) from the field, 5-24 (20%) from three, and 16-30 (53%) from the free-throw line. Each team committed 18 turnovers on the night while Kenton grabbed 34 rebounds to Bluffton’s 20.
So while my wish for the New Year is still merely a wish, and the Pirates’ record stands at 0-8, there is still hope and there remains a lot to look forward to. This young Bluffton squad has been close in just about every game this season, losing 6 of 8 games this season by only 8 points or less. It is definitely apparent that Coach Boblitt’s team has not given up. Boblitt said, “I told our guys that I’m extremely proud of our effort. I don’t think we’ve backed down yet, and it’s tough. Our kids are battling and fighting and trying to get better every day, and I think we are, and it’s not been able to show on the win column. All we can do is keep working and trying to get better every day in practice. We have another opportunity Friday night.”
The Pirates made the most of that Friday night opportunity as they earned their first win of the season, beating the Paulding Panthers 43-42. My wish for the New Year finally came true after a game where neither team held a lead larger than 6 points, giving fans a show almost as exciting as the Kenton game four days earlier.
The Pirates started the game with a good display of shooting, hitting 4-6 from the field and 2-4 from the three-point line. Senior Matt Gillett hit 3 of 3 from the field and 1-2 from three to score 9 points and lead the Pirates in first quarter scoring. Paulding connected on 5-8 attempts from the field to keep the Pirate lead to only 4 points as the quarter finished with the score 14-10 in Bluffton’s favor.
The Pirates struggled from the field to start the second quarter, missing all 5 of their attempts from the field in the first 4 minutes. The Panthers took advantage of the Pirates shooting woes as they went on a 10-0 run, led by Lance Foor’s 5 points and Julian Salinas’ 4 points. With just around 4 minutes remaining in the half, junior Michael Donley came through for the Pirates, hitting a three-pointer to break the cold streak. That sparked a 7-4 run for the home team, making the halftime score 24-21 in favor of Paulding.
Gillett led all scorers at half time with 11 points, shooting 4-5 from the field and 1-3 from three-point range. Lance Foor and Julian Salinas led the Panthers at the half with 6 and 5 points respectively.
Both teams struggled out of the gate in the third quarter as turnovers and missed shots kept points to a minimum. The Panthers only connected on 3 of their 12 attempts from the field in the quarter, while the Pirates turned the ball over 8 times on the offensive end. “They switched defenses a lot and took us out of what we wanted to do and we became a little sloppy with the ball,” said Coach Boblitt after the game. Those 8 turnovers limited Bluffton to only 2 shot attempts from the field, 3 from the three-point line, and 6 from the free-throw line as the Pirates could only muster 8 points in the quarter. Fortunately for them, the Panthers poor shooting limited them to only 7 points in the quarter, making the score 31-29 in Paulding’s favor heading into the final frame.
The fourth quarter brought an incredible amount of excitement, something you can expect when attending a Bluffton Basketball game. With a 1:30 remaining and the Pirates trailing by three, Matt Gillett hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 38-38. Not more than 10 seconds later, R.J. Stratton deflected a Panther pass, grabbed the ball, and hit a lay-up to give the Pirates the lead with just over a minute left in the game. After a few traded buckets, the Pirates held a 1 point lead with 10 seconds left. Paulding inbounded the ball and drove down the court. Jason Koenn got the ball on the wing with 3 seconds left and drove to the basket for a lay-up, but it was blocked and sent out of bounds by R.J. Stratton with .6 seconds left in the game. That gave the Panthers one last chance to put the ball in the basket for the win. “The final possession there on the inbounds pass we thought they were going to go inside. We were worried about number 32, Arellano, cross-screening and sealing, so we double-teamed him hard. He shoved both of our guys out of the lane and they got a really good look at it,” said Coach Boblitt. With very little traffic in the lane, Paulding’s Julian Salinas caught a lob-pass and took an open shot right in front of the basket, but the shot rimmed out, making the final score 43-42 and giving the Pirates their first win of the season.
“We’ve been working really hard. It was getting difficult, especially after that double overtime loss Tuesday. Everyone was really starting to get down, but it’s really good to finally get one under our belts and I think it will give us some momentum for the rest of the season. It’s good to get that first one,” said Bluffton senior Matt Gillett. Gillett led the Pirates on the night with 20 points, shooting 4-6 from the field, 2-5 from three, and 6-7 from the free-throw line. Other scorers for the Pirates were Austin Bricker (2 points), R.J. Stratton (6 points), Michael Donley (14 points), and Michael Liska (1 point).
The Pirates shot 11-20 from the field, 4-12 from the three-point line, and 9-15 from the free-throw line. They gave the ball up for 23 turnovers while Paulding only committed 17. The Pirates were also out-rebounded by only 1, 21-20.
Bluffton will be back in action Friday, January 13th, as they travel to Spencerville for an NWC game. The JV game is scheduled to start at 6 pm.
Evan Skilliter
Bluffton University-Sports Management Major
Bluffton University Sports Information Assistant
skiera@bluffton.edu







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