By: Colton Steiner
GAMBIER, Ohio - After picking up their first win of the season, the Beavers would continue their roadtrip in the state of Ohio and travel to Kenyon College to face off against the Owls. Despite a hot start from Bluffton, Kenyon would find a groove and cruise to a 73-60 win over the Beavers, as Bluffton dropped to a record of 1-4 on the 2025 campaign. With the victory, the Owls improve to a record of 4-2 overall.
The Beavers would start hot, jumping ahead 8-0 after back-to-back triples from Andre Irvin (Lewis Center, Ohio / Olentangy Orange) and Ian Snelling (Erlanger, Ky. / Dixie Heights) just three minutes into the contes. Kenyon would fight back into the contest, taking an 11-10 lead at the 13:55 mark before a Matt Ray (Indianapolis, Ind. / Herron) layup helped Bluffton retake the lead 12-11. Matt Ray would hit a three from the corner to put the Beavers up 15-11, but the Owls would erupt and go on an 18-4 run to lead 29-19 at the eight minut emedia timeout. While Bluffton was able to score five straight, Kenyon would close out the half outscoring the Beavers 11-6 as they held a 40-29 lead at the break.
Coming out of the half, the home team would pick up where they ended the first half as they were able to extend their lead to 52-30 before an Ian Snelling jumper in the paint brought the deficit to 20 with 11:24 left to play. Both teams were able to exchange buckets for the next give minutes until a pair of Andre Irvin free throws cut the Kenyon lead to 62-44. The Beavers would continue their run, scoring five straight that included lay ins from JD Stokes (West Harrison, Ind. / Franklin County) and Nevin Robson (Kenton, Ohio / Hardin Northern) as they pulled within 15. Trailing 66-51, Jaxon Foster (Lima, Ohio / Bath) would score five straight to make it a 10 point ballgame with 3:44 left in regulation. Bluffton managed to pull within nine after a Curshaun Walker (East Chicago, Ind. / Bishop Noll) jumper, but the home dragged their lead back to double-digits as they led 73-58. With 12 seconds to play, Curshaun Walker managed to poke loose a steal to dish a fastbreak pass to Jaxon Foster who threw down a one-handed slam, but the deficit would be too much to mount a comeback as the Beavers would fall on the road 73-60.
Leading in scoring for Bluffton would be Andre Irvin with 14 in the outing, hitting 3-of-4 from downtown. Also scoring in double figures for the Beavers was Jaxon Foste,r who tallied 11 in 16 minutes of action. Ian Snelling would drop nine points for the Beavers as Nevin Robson snagged a team-high 11 boards against the Owls.
Defensively, the Beavers were unable to stop the Kenyon offense as the Owls would hit 51 percent (25-of-49) of their shots from the game that included 7-of-14 (50 percent) shots from behind the arc. On the offensive side of the rock for Bluffton, the struggled to knock down shots, hitting only 36.4 percent (20-of-55) for the game and 30 percent (6-of-20) from three. While the Beavers coughed up the ball 20 times, they did win the battle of the boards by a slim margin with a 33-32 advantage.
Bluffton will compete in an exhibition game against the University of Findlay on Friday, Nov. 28 at 7 p.m. before traveling back home to host the Mount St. Joseph Lions on Dec. 3 starting at 7:30 p.m.
-Beavers-