By: Colton Steiner
RICHMOND, Ind. - The Bluffton Beavers would hit the road to face off against the Earlham Quakers, who are winless in the HCAC and 0-1 against the Beavers after falling earlier in the season in an overtime thriller where Bluffton walked away with a 96-87 win. The Quakers go into the half with an eight point lead and not let up, as they would send Bluffton home with a 81-73 loss. The Beavers now sit at a record of 8-13 on the season and fall to 6-8 in the HCAC, while Earlham improves to 2-19 and 1-13 in conference play.
After layups from William Layfield (West Chester, Ohio / Lakota West) and Jaxon Foster (Lima, Ohio / Bath) in the first 70 seconds, Bluffton jumped ahead to a 4-0 lead early until a 5-0 run from the hosts put the Beavers behind by 1. The two teams would trade buckets and exchange leads for several minutes, but after a Taran Logwood (Urbana, Ohio / West Liberty-Salem) lay in put the visitors up 21-19, Earlham would go on a 14-0 run to take a commanding 33-21 lead with 6:45 left to play in the half. Bluffton would outscore the Quakers 10-6 in the final six minutes, but the home team would hold a 39-31 advantage at the break.
JD Stokes (West Harrison, Ind. / Franklin County) would open up the second half by knocking down a triple to make a two possession game, but back-to-back buckets from Earlham made it 44-34 with 18:45 left to play. The Quakers would be able to extend their lead to 14 after a pair of free threes gave them a 68-54 lead with just under six minutes left. Despite the Beavers going on a 14-5 surge in the final few minutes, with a Justice Thompson (Ashland, Ohio / Crestview) three cut the deficit to five, Earlham would find their ground and not let Bluffton cut into the lead any more, as Earlham would come away with an 81-73 win on their home curt.
Dropping a career-high 22 points, was William Layfield who also snagged a team high eight rebounds and dishing out two assissts, while nabbing two steals. Layfield would also finish the game going 6-of-10 from the floor and 10-of-11 from the charity stripe. Also scoring in double figures was Andre Irvin (Lewis Center, Ohio / Olentangy Orange) who netted 14 with a team-high three assists, with Justice Thompson adding 12 off the bench.
The Beavers struggled to get anything going on the offensive side of the ball, finishing the game with a mark of 39.3 percent (24-of-61) from the floor and 5-of-25 (20 percent) from behind the arc. The Quakers finished the contest shooitng an efficient 50.9 percent (29-of-57) for the game, including 10-of-28 (35.7 percent) from downtown. Despite losing the rebounding battle 36-31, Bluffton would hold an 11-8 advantage on the offensive glass. While the Quakers outscored the Beavers 35-16 in bench points, Bluffton held a 36-30 advantage in points in the paint, along with a 17-12 edge in points off turnovers.
The Beavers will have their eyes set on their next contest as they put this game behind them. They will travel south to Transylvania University on Saturday, Feb. 7 to face off against the Pioneers, with tipoff set for 4 p.m.
-Beavers-