November 16, 2012
By: Keisha Holtsberry, sports information assistant
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Bluffton University men's basketball team fell to Case Western Reserve University in the 2012-13 season opener on Friday, Nov. 16, at the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Memorial Tournament. The Beavers had a solid first half, but the home team took over in the second en route to a 66-53 victory over Bluffton.
The Beavers took an early lead and were up by seven less than four minutes into the contest. Senior Tyler Neal (Bluffton) drained a jumper to open the Bluffton scoring. Less than a minute later, Dustin Kinn (Alvada/New Riegel) made it 4-2. Will Pope (Somerville/Preble Shawnee) added two more with a layup of his own. Kinn increased the Beavers lead as he got to the rack for a deuce. At the 16:44 mark, Neal connected on a three-pointer to put the Beavers up 11-4.
At the 9:55 mark, Pope hit from in close to make the score 25-15, the largest Bluffton lead of the night. Over the next five minutes, Case steadily trimmed the deficit until the game was tied at 28. A Kinn bucket and two Josh Fisher (Rockford/Parkway) free throws gave Bluffton a 32-31 lead at the half.
The Beavers upped their lead back to four following makes by Pope and Kinn early in the second period. At the 17:43 mark, Josh Johnson (Ottawa/Ottawa-Glandorf) made a triple to give the Beavers a four-point lead. The Beavers stayed on top until the 13:32 mark when the Spartans took over. During the last 13 minutes, Case Western went on a 22-10 spurt to finish off the Beavers 66-55 while moving into the finals of its season-opening tournament.
The Beavers were led by Kinn who went 7-of-13 from the field for 16 points. Pope was not far behind with 13 points of his own. He also collected a game-high 13 rebounds, posting a double-double in the first game of the season. Neal hauled in a career-high 10 rebounds in the loss.
Bluffton struggled from behind the arc, making only 2-of-14 (14.3 percent) of their three-point tries. The Beavers turned it over four more times (21-17), but pulled down five more rebounds (43-38). Case Western hit 38.7 percent (24-of-62) from the field, compared to 30.5 percent (18-of-59) for Bluffton.
The Beavers move into the conslation game with Johns Hopkins at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17.
-BEAVERS-