Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer

Transy snaps Bluffton's school record 11-game winning streak, 70-67

Posted: Jan 14, 2006

By Bill Hanefeld Jr., sports information director
January 14, 2006

BLUFFTON, Ohio - The Bluffton University men's basketball team had its school-record 11-game winning streak snapped by the #25 Pioneers at Transylvania on Saturday, January 14, 2006 by a final score of 70-67. With the loss the Beavers (13-2, 3-1) fell into a first place tie in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference with the Pioneers (12-3, 3-1) and the Hanover Panthers.

SCOTT BERGMAN (Elmore/Woodmore) put the Beavers on the board first when he slashed his way to the basket just over a minute into the game. JOEY SEARLE promptly answered with one of his four triples on the afternoon. Junior MIKE ANTHONY (Ohio City/Delphos St. John's) followed an ERIC SCHWIETERMAN (St. Henry/St. Henry) jumper with a bucket of his own to give the Beavers a four point lead (11-7) at the 15:43 mark. Following Anthony's score, the Beavers hit a seven-minute dry spell which allowed Transylvania to parlay its 16-0 run into a 12-point advantage (23-11) with eight and a half minutes left in the half. RICKY REUCHER(Toledo/Central Catholic) took a Schwieterman pass to the hoop and capped an 11-2 run which trimmed the gap to two points at the four minute mark. The Beavers hit two triples during the final minute of the initial stanza, one from Anthony and half-court Bergman offering at the buzzer, to go into halftime down 35-34.  

MATT FINKE and ROBERT PENDLETON both hit three-pointers early in the second half to give the Pioneers a 41-36 lead. Searle capped a quick 7-2 Transy run with five straight points at the 15 minute mark. The Pioneers' lead hovered around 10 points until Reucher followed an ERIC SWEET (Ottawa/Ottawa-Glandorf) bucket with a pair of free throws to narrow the margin to five (56-51) with 8:39 left in the game. Transy outscored the Beavers 8-3 over the next four minutes to push its lead back to 10 with less than five minutes to play. Bergman capped an 11-2 Bluffton explosion when he followed an Anthony three-pointer with a long range trifecta of his own to pull the Beavers to within one (66-65) at the 1:43 mark. The Pioneers hit four consecutive free throws and Bergman just missed the mark twice from long distance in the final 10 seconds as Transylvania held on to put an end to the Beavers' 11-game winning streak by a final score of 70-67.

Anthony did it all for the Beavers as he scored 18 points on 5-9 shooting from the field, including 2-4 from behind the arc, and pulled down a team-high six rebounds. Bergman, who managed only 10 shots, finished with 18 points and five boards. Sweet, who was limited to 19 minutes because of foul trouble, scored 13 points.

The Pioneers borrowed a page from the Beavers' playbook and shot a blistering 62 percent (13-21) from three-point land compared to Bluffton's 6-18 for 33 percent. The Beavers took advantage of their opportunities at the charity stripe as they hit 27-32 for 84 percent.

Bluffton will return to action on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 when it hosts HCAC rival Mount St. Joseph. Fans are invited to Catch the Fever in Founders on Wednesday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.