January 10, 2001


Bluffton College knocked off Heartland Conference leader Manchester College Wednesday night in Founders Hall by a 94-87 final score. Bluffton improves to 9-4 overall and 1-2 in the HCAC, while the visiting Spartans suffer their first league loss of the season to fall to 10-3 overall and 2-1 in the HCAC.

Bluffton's Ben Coole (Butler/Clear Fork) scored a career-high 34 points to lead the Beavers, hitting 16 of 21 foul shots and grabbing nine rebounds. Bluffton outscored Manchester 28-10 at the foul line and shot a blistering 59.6% from the field. 

Freshman Scott Remaklus (Lorain/Southview) also hit a career-high with 23 points, while Chad Cramer (Bellevue) added 14.

Manchester led most of the first half, but Bluffton shot 69.6% from the floor in the second half as the Beavers converted back-door passes into easy layups and played excellent perimeter defense to hold the Spartans to just 7-24 from 3-point range.

Bluffton guards Remaklus and senior Chris Sheldon (Bucyrus/Wynford) matched Manchester's All-HCAC guards Carson Harris and Jeremy Neely at both ends of the court, while Coole and Cramer did likewise in the post. Though Cramer was 0-2 from 3-point range, he did hit several long-range 2-pointers at several key times to keep the Beavers in the game in the first half.

Manchester entered the game ranked eighth in the latest Columbus Multimedia Midwest Region Poll. They were led by Yul Lee with 22 points.

Up next for BC is Hanover College who visits Founders Hall on Saturday with a 12-1 record overall and a 2-0 mark in the HCAC pending their game this evening. The Panthers are ranked 4th in the Midwest Region.