By: Colton Steiner
BLUFFTON, Ohio - To close out the year of 2024, the Bluffton University men hosted the Kalamazoo College Hornets in a New Year's Eve battle. Both teams would start off hot in the first half, but a late second-half surge from the Hornets was enough to give them the 84-78 victory. With the loss, Bluffton drops to 2-9 overall and the Beavers will go into 2025 with a 1-3 record in the HCAC while Kalamazoo improves to 7-3 on the year.
The Beavers would get on the board first after Ian Snelling (Erlanger, Ky./Dixie Heights) drilled a triple 24 seconds into the contest, but the visitors followed with back-to-back threes to go up 6-3. Both teams would go back and forth and with the Hornets up 12-9, Luke Beyke (St. Henry) drained a shot from behind the arc to even up the contest. It was a barage of threes for Bluffton as they would hit two more long balls on the way a 18-16 lead. In the first seven minutes, five of the Beavers first six made shots came from downtown.
The two teams would trade buckets until the Hornets were able to extend their lead to 30-22 with 9:20 left in the half after scoring 10 unanswered. A layup from Nevin Robson (Kenton/Hardin Northern) halted the run, but Kalamazoo would score six more as they extended their lead to 36-24. Bluffton was able to hang around as Ian Snelling cut the deficit to six with a pair of threes at the 6:08 mark. Despite being down 40-30 in the final four minutes, the Beavers would close the half outscoring the visitors 10-5 as they went into the break trailing 45-40.
After trading buckets for the first couple minutes, layups from Ian Snelling and Nevin Robson would pull Bluffton within two, 49-47, at the 16:57 mark of the second half. Kalamazoo pushed it to 55-49, but Luke Beyke hit his third triple of the game to make it a one-possession game. With 11:12 left in the contest, a little 4-1 run from the home team made it a one-point ball game, 60-59. The Hornets were able to answer with a 6-2 run of their own, but a layup from Nevin Robson and a three from Aiden Alialy (Indianapolis, Ind./Indianapolis Lutheran) tied the game up at 66-66 with only 5:56 left in regulation.
The two teams would exchange buckets, but with the game tied 70-70, Kalamazoo used an 8-0 surge to go up 78-70 with just two minutes left to play. Nevin Robson would respond with a triple and draw a goaltend on the defense. narrowing the deficit to three. After four made free throws from the Hornets, another three from Robson made it 82-78 with 18 seconds remaining. Kalamazoo would cement the victory after converting on another pair of shots from the charity stripe as they knocked off the Beavers by an 84-78 count.
From the floor, Bluffton knocked down 30-of-71 (42.3 percent) while going 34.3 percent (12-of-35) from behind the arc. Kalamazoo hit 44.1 percent (30-of-68) of their shots and after starting off the game 7-of-14 from three in the first half, they would close out the game shooting 0-of-10 as the Hornets finished 7-of-24 (29.2 percent) from downtown. The visitors were able to edge out the Beavers in the rebounding battle (47-41) and they outscored the hosts by 16 in the paint (46-30).
Leading the way for Bluffton was Nevin Robson who set a career-high with 28 points on 12-of-19 from the field while snagging nine boards. Ian Snelling added 17, scoring 13 in the first half, and Luke Beyke netted a career high with 12 while shooting 3-of-6 from distance. Dishing out a career-high five assists to go along with six points was Trevor Daughtry (Wabash, Ind.) and JD Stokes (West Harrison, Ind./Franklin County) grabbed nine a career-best nine rebounds in the contest.
The Beavers are back in the Sommer Center to start off 2025 when they welcome the Hanover College Panthers on Saturday, Jan. 4 for a 1 p.m. tip-off. Come out and support your Beavers!
-Beavers-