By: Colton Steiner

BLUFFTON, Ohio - After knocking off the Berea Mountaineers 85-72 earlier in the season, the Beavers would play host on Saturday afternoon. It would be a tight back and forth battle, but Bluffton would ultimately prevail, picking up the 2-0 regular season sweep of the Mountaineers after coming out with a 87-81 win. Following their third consecutive victory, the Beavers improve to 6-10 on the season with a 4-5 record in the HCAC, while Berea falls to 7-9 overall and 3-6 in conference play.

Jaxon Foster (Lima, Ohio / Bath) would get Bluffton started right out of the gate, drilling a corner three to put the Beavers up 3-0 in the first thirty seconds. After a Jaxon Foster layup and a pair of JD Stokes (West Harrison, Ind. / Franklin County) free throws, the home team would extend their lead to 8-0 in the first two minutes. It would be a 14-2 Beaver lead at the 16:09 mark of the first half, but the Mountaineers would fight back into the game, going on a 12-0 run to tie the game up at 14 before an Andre Irvin (Lewis Center, Ohio / Olentangy Orange) triple put Bluffton back up three with 13:54 left in the half. The Berea offense would start clicking as they would go on a 7-1 run to go up 21-18, but a William Layfield (West Chester, Ohio / Lakota West) layup would make it a one-point contest. The two teams would go back and forth, with the Mountaineers able to take a two-possession lead at the 5:10 mark of the first half after a layup gave the visitors a 31-25 lead. They managed to hold a two-possession lead until Andre Irvin would knock down a three with 22 seconds left to cut the deficit to 41-38 heading into the break. 

After 116 seconds of scoreless basketball to start the second half, Ian Snelling (Erlanger, Ky. / Dixie Heights) would find nothing but nylon from behind the arc to tie the game up at 41 apiece. It would be a back-and-forth battle as the two teams exchanged buckets until Bluffton was able to take a 55-50 lead after Nevin Robson (Kenton, Ohio / Hardin Northern) would pick up an old-fashioned three-point play with 11:22 left to play. The two teams would trade buckets, but Justice Thompson (Ashland, Ohio / Crestview) would score five straight points to put the Beavers up eight as they held a 63-55 lead with under ten minutes to play. Following a layup from Berea to cut the lead to 67-61, Bluffton would go on a 8-0 run that was capped off with an Ian Snelling triple to put them up 75-61 with 5:07 remaining. Despite the run, the visitors would go on a 12-2 spurt of their own to make it 77-73 with 2:10 left. The Mountaineers would be able to bring the game within two, but after the Beavers would finish the game going 6-of-8 from the charity stripe, the visitors would be unable to answer offensively as Bluffton would come out on top 87-81. 

Nevin Robson would finish the day as the Beavers leading scorer with 21 on the day to go along with seven rebounds and five assists. Also scoring in double figures was Andre Irvin, who tallied 16 in the contest with four dimes and five boards. Ian Snelling notched a double-double scoring 13 and dishing out a team high 10 assists, and was one rebound away with a triple double as he led the team in rebounds with nine. William Layfield would score 14 off the bench as he went a perfect 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. 

Bluffton would outshoot Berea, knocking down 47.4 percent (27-of-57) of their shots from the floor while holding the Mountaineers to 44.3 percent (31-of-70) from the field. The Beaver defense would hold the visitors to under 30 percent from three as they would go 8-of-27 (29.6 percent) from behind the arc, while Bluffton finished the contest with a 35.7 percent (10-of-28) mark from downtown. While the Beavers held a 23-17 in bench points, the Mountaineers were all over the glass with a 41-34 advantage. The visitors were all over the offensive boards as well, as they held a 15-8 edge that allowed them to outscore Bluffton 25-12 in second chance points. 

The Beavers will look to continue this winning streak when they travel to Mount St. Joseph on Wednesday, Jan. 21 when they tipoff at 7:30 p.m.

-Beavers-