By Cort Reynolds<\/p>\n
BLUFFTON \u2013 The Bluffton High School boys basketball team pulled ahead with a key third quarter and went on to defeat spunky non-conference foe Elida 55-45 on Senior Night, Tuesday, February 10.<\/p>\n
Senior Robby Taylor scored a season-high 16 points to lead four Pirates in double figures. Fellow senior Bean Ginther tallied 13 markers.<\/p>\n
The Pirates held a 15-13 edge after the opening period. Bluffton led 27-24 at halftime on the strength of five trifectas.<\/p>\n
The Pirates authored a 12-5 third period to earn a little breathing room as Lane Ginther scored seven big points. Bluffton forged ahead 39-29 going into the fourth quarter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both teams poured in 16 points in the final stanza. Pirate freshman guard Brody Donley scored all 11 of his points in the fourth quarter behind three triples.<\/p>\n
Taylor buried four triples in the first half, then sank all four of his free throws in the final period to help keep Elida at bay.<\/p>\n
The Pirates improved to 8-12 overall after the home win.<\/p>\n
Struggling Elida fell to 3-16 after suffering the road defeat. The Bulldogs have dropped nine of their last 11 contests after losing their first seven games of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
1<\/p>\n
2<\/p>\n
3<\/p>\n
4<\/p>\n
F<\/p>\n
Bluffton<\/p>\n
15<\/p>\n
12<\/p>\n
12<\/p>\n
16<\/p>\n
55<\/p>\n
Elida<\/p>\n
13<\/p>\n
11<\/p>\n
5<\/p>\n
16<\/p>\n
45<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lane Ginther contributed a dozen points, and Donley chipped in with 11 markers. Parker Lovell added three points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seniors Taylor and Bean Ginther were recognized before the game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Senior Jonathan Payne led Elida with 16 points. Jayden Snyder tallied nine of his 11 markers in the fourth period. Payne also netted seven in the final stanza.<\/p>\n
The Pirates connected on eight two-point goals and splashed nine big triples. Bluffton converted 12 of its 18 shots from the charity stripe (67 percent).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elida canned 13 deuces and drilled five trifectas. The Bulldogs sank four of six foul shots (67 percent).<\/p>\n
UP NEXT
The Pirates (0-6 NWC) host tough backyard Northwest Conference rival Allen East (13-7, 3-2 NWC) on Friday, Feb. 13 in the Bluffton league finale. Lincolnview is first in the NWC at 5-1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Cort Reynolds BLUFFTON \u2013 The Bluffton High School boys basketball team pulled ahead with a key third…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-472801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}