By: Colton Steiner
BLUFFTON, Ohio - The Bluffton Beavers would honor their nine seniors on senior night as they would play host to the Anderson Ravens in the final contest of the regular season. William Layfield (West Chester, Ohio / Lakota West), Matt Ray(Indianapolis, Ind. / Herron), Nevin Robson (Kenton, Ohio / Hardin Northern), Ian Snelling (Erlanger, Ky. / Dixie Heights), Andre Irvin (Lewis Center, Ohio / Olentangy Orange), Abolaji Monk (Chicago, Ill. / Wilde Lake), Brendan Williams (South Bend, Ind. / Mishawaka), Caden Granger (Dalton, Ohio / Central Christian), and Jacob Windy (Elkhart, Ind. / Elkhart) would all be recognized prior to tipoff for their contributions to the men's basketball program over their collegiate careers. Once the game got going, the Ravens would rattle home a plethora of threes as they would pull away in the second half to hand the Beavers a 93-74 loss on Copeland Court. With the loss, Bluffton finishes the regular season with a record of 9-16, with a 7-11 mark in the HCAC, while Anderson sits at 16-9 overall and 14-4 in conference play.
After falling behind 5-2 to start the game, three free throws from Matt Ray and a layup from Caden Granger allowed the Beavers to take a 7-5 lead heading into the first media timeout. Anderson would answer with a 7-2 spurt until a floater from Nevin Robson and a two-handed alley-oop jam from JD Stokes (West Harrison, Ind. / Franklin County) off a Carson Clum (Harrod, Ohio / Allen East) dime, allowed Bluffton to jump ahead 13-12 with under ten minutes to play. The two teams would go back and forth, exchanging buckets, and after a Jaxon Foster (Lima, Ohio / Bath) three with 4:46 left, the home team would be up front 26-24. Despite the lead, the Ravens would find fire and close out the half outscoring the Beavers 13-2 in the remainder of the half as they would hold a 39-28 advantage at the break.
William Layfield would score the first two buckets for Bluffton, but Anderson would have an answer for whatever the Beavers threw at them as they held a four-possession lead in the first four minutes. With 15:15 on the clock, Justice Thompson (Ashland, Ohio / Crestview) would connect from deep to cut the deficit to 11 as the Ravens would be up front 50-39. The threes would continue to fall as the visitors would increase their lead to 22 with 10:03 as they held a 66-44 lead. Bluffton would manage to cut the deficit to under 20 after a three from Brendan Williams and a fastbreak dunk from William Layfield made it 84-68 with 2:25 left to play. The deficit would be too much to overcome as the Beavers would be outscored 9-6 in the final two minutes as they would fall at home 93-74.
Pacing the Beavers with a team-high 18 points was Nevin Robson, who also dished out five assists, snagged six boards, and poked away three steals. Brendan Williams would finished the game going a perfect 4-for-4 from behind the arc to tally 12 points, with JD Stokes recording 12 points off the bench. Jaxon Foster would round out the double digit scoring with 10, while Justice Thompson would record nine with six boards in 24 minutes of action.
Bluffton would finish the contest going 28-of-65 (43.1 percent) from the field while Anderson would hit at a slightly higher clip at 46.5 percent (33-of-71). The threes would be falling for the Ravens as well, hitting an impressive 22-of-52 (42.3 percent) while the Beavers would go 9-of-25 (36.0 percent) from deep. Bluffton did manage to outscore the Ravens in the paint with a 34-20 advantage, but the visitors were all over the glass, winning the rebounding battle 43-35 and holding an 11-3 edge in second chance points.
The Beavers will look ahead to Saturday, Feb. 21 as they solidified the No. 7 seed and travel to face off the No. 2 seed (Transylvania or Anderson) in the HCAC Quarterfinals, with tipoff set for 3 p.m.
-Beavers-
