BLUFFTON — Bluffton may start only one senior, three sophomores and one freshman but the Pirates played like veterans in defeating Crestview, 52-42, in the Northwest Conference opener for both teams Thursday night.
Bluffton improves to 3-2 on the year and Crestview falls to 1-3 overall.
Pirate head coach Eric Garmatter was happy to open the conference with a win and said this was the first time Bluffton has beaten Crestview in 12 years and his first time as the head coach defeating the Knights.
“We are young but three of them started as freshmen and we have four lettermen back so they are young in age but the they have a lot of experience,” Garmatter said.
With both teams struggling to find consistent scoring it was the Pirates diamond and two defense at the onset of the second half proved to be the difference.
“I’ve watched them twice now and I have all the respect for Paige and the Gregory girl, she was better than what I thought she was going to be, so I thought if we could take the ball out her hands and try to take Paige out of it and take our changes with that.”
Even though Motycka did put score a team-high 16 points, however, she was limited to seven points in the second half and four of those points game with than less two minutes left in the game. Motycka was effective on the boards as she grabbed 18 caroms.
Knight freshman Lyvia Black scored 12 points.
“In the first half all went pretty good and then they came out in the triangle and two and it was a good move on his part,” said Crestview head coach Mark Gregory. “We had to make some shots and somebody other than Lexi or Paige had to make some shots. We just struggled from the field tonight. They crashed the offensive boards pretty well and we didn’t do a very good job of getting the rebounds and at the end of the day those little things kill you.”
Early on both teams fought to grabbed control of the game.
Bluffton, on the strength of a 3-pointer from Alivia Koenig and a bucket from Kayla White, jumped out to an early 8-2 at the 5:50 mark.
Crestview erased that early Pirate lead when they outscored Bluffton, 16-3, in the next two minutes to grab an 18-11, lead with 2:13 remaining in the first quarter. In the final two minutes, the Pirates sliced the lead to three, 22-19, by the time the buzzer sounded to signal the end of the first period.
In the second quarter both teams struggled to find their shooting touch and in the next eight minutes, the two teams combined for 15 points with Bluffton outscoring Crestview, 10-5, to take a 29-28 lead into halftime.
Thanks to some solid free throw shooting by Abbie Perkins, who went 4-for-4 from the charity stripe, and a offensive stick back by Averey Rumer to open the second half, the Pirates scored the first six points and opened up their biggest lead, 35-28, at the 5:40 mark of the third period.
With the Pirates clamping down on Crestview’s top two scorers in the second half, the Pirates maintained their single-digit lead throughout the remainder of the game to secure the win. The Knights never got the lead under six.
“They do a nice job of penetrating and creating space,” Gregory said. “I don’t know what they were for from the three tonight but they shot the ball pretty and they are making shots and we are not making shots. We gave up 52 points and really I’m not disappointed with that but we only scored 42.”
Gregory, who said his team wasn’t aggressive enough going to the hoop, added that the Pirates did a good job of penetrating the Knights’ interior defense and getting fouls. In the second half, the Pirates were 16-of-21 from the free thrown line.
Bluffton’s Koenig, who was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, had a game-high 18 points and grabbed six rebounds. Rumer scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds and Perkins chipped in 11 points and grabbed six rebounds.
“We are at our best when we share the ball,” Garmatter said. “We pass up one shot for a better shot and we did a good job of that tonight.”
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