BLUFFTON, Ohio - The Bluffton University women's basketball team cruised to a 72-59 victory over Earlham College on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023. With the students back in the class, the atmosphere was electric for a Beaver squad that won its third straight game and improved to 10-4 overall and 5-3 in the Heartland Conference. Former Bluffton assistant Shanna Thompson and her Quakers fought to the end, but Earlham fell to 1-12 on the season.
Morgan Smith (Arlington) got to the rack and fellow senior Sammy Shardo (Findlay/Liberty-Benton) dialed long distance for a quick 5-0 Bluffton lead. Six straight Smith markers and an Olivia Zender (Fostoria/Hopewell Louden) triple pushed the Beavers to an 18-10 spread after 10 minutes.
Another Zender three made it 25-15 with 7:04 to play in the half. Bluffton opened up a 37-21 lead when Defiance hero Kyla Columber (Marion/Pleasant) snuck one up and in with 52 ticks remaining. A Willow Runyon deep ball at the buzzer made the halftime score 37-24 in favor of the good guys.
Triples by Shardo and Lacie Fenstermaker (Leipsic/Pandora-Gilboa) iced it for Bluffton as the Beavers led 53-35 with 3:51 to play in the third quarter. The home team was up 54-39 with one stanza to play and Coach Shutler used the final 10 minutes to empty the bench as all 15 Beavers available for action saw extensive time on the floor Wednesday night.
Shardo reminded everyone that she can still light it up from way downtown as the senior sharpshooter buried 5-of-10 from distance on the way to a game-high 19 points! Smith notched her 13th double-double with 18 markers and 14 caroms. She finished the night an efficient 8-of-14 from the field. Zender made it a three-headed monster with 5-of-8 from the field for a dozen counters. Smith handed out a career-high four assists, while Shardo added three helpers. Zender and Lindsey Smith (Mount Victory/Kenton) chipped in with six and five boards, respectively.
Bluffton pulled down four more rebounds (44-40) and only turned it over 11 times against a defense that came into the Sommer Center forcing nearly 20 miscues a game. The Beavers hit 27-of-59 (45.8 percent) from the field and limited the Quake show to just 21-of-63 (33.3 percent) shooting for the night. Bluffton doubled up the visitors with eight threes to just four Earlham makes.
The Beavers will host Franklin College on Saturday, Jan. 14, as part of their Alumni Day festivities. Bluffton women's hoops alumni are slated to tee it up at 11 a.m. with the main course at 2 p.m. Franklin's men make it a three-game day as the Grizzlies take on Bluffton at approximately 4 p.m.
-BEAVERS-
