Bluffton 64, Luers 66

What an exciting game. We were at a Euchre tournament at St. Therese, but I was able to catch bits and pieces on my transistor radio.... a nice cheer went up for Luers at the end. Brock Woodward scored 18 for Bluffton, playing injured, and even on the radio I heard the crowd crow when Woodward stuffed a DeShaun Thomas shot near the end.

Bluffton called two timeouts before Jared Johnson’s long three-pointer hit the back of the rim and bounced out.

“Bluffton is a great team, and we underestimated them,” [Luers Coach] Barnett said. “People were saying we were going to blow them out, but we weren’t thinking that. We got lucky and came out with the win.”

A tip of the hat to Bluffton for a great season... I suspect these two teams will find themselves back face-to-face next year since they both have many underclassmen on the starting five.

Bluffton, like Woodlan before them, double teamed Thomas most of the game and only allowed him 15 points; but Bluffton tired near the end, which allowed Luers to ourscore them 17-7 in the final quarter.

Luers will face either Oak Hill, or Tipton next week. Bluffton ends their stellar season 23-1.

Luers vs. Woodlan

Luers is up, 33-31, just after the half. DeShaun Thomas has only 2 points as Woodlan is double and triple teaming him at every possession.

47-46 Luers with 5 minutes to go.... Thomas still with only 2... Woodlan playing a "Diamond in One" falling in on Thomas at each touch of the ball.

56-49 Luers with 1:50 to go... other Luers players are taking up the slack for Thomas. Woodlan has a ton of fouls compared to Luers.

60-52 Luers with 40 seconds left, Thomas has 8 points... Woodlan fouling at every possession, trying to score with the clock off.

64-54 Luers with less than 20 seconds left. Woodlan players are starting to foul out. Thomas has 10 points.

65-54 Luers, Final. Woodlan was able to stop Thomas, but at the cost of many, many fouls and the scoring just moved to other, capable Luers players.

Can Bluffton Beat Bishop Luers

A nice article in the Berne Tri-Weekly about the Adams Central (0-20) vs. Bluffton (22-0) game on Wednesday.

[Bluffton Coach Wayne] Barker was asked what separates a team from going undefeated, as his team has done thus far, and a team that manages to go an entire season without tasting victory.

"We've been lucky at times, and I don't mean to discount our players' talents, because we've got good players, but there have just been times that we've been fortunate," he said.

Perhaps Coach Barker was just being generous in the interview, and sensitive to Adams Centrals' fans. But, in fact, Bluffton has been lucky, taking a couple of very close games it might not have taken on another night. There was a nice article in the Banner a few years ago about Big Wells County Games of the past, it's the type of article local newspapers should pursue more often to help their bottom line. Luers isn't a Wells County team, but Wells County residents are students there. This will be one of those Big Games.

Anyway, it's perhaps dangerous to assume that Bluffton will get past South Adams and Luers will get past Woodlan to face each other on Saturday, but let's be dangerous. Can Bluffton Beat Bishop Luers? Can number 1 defeat number 3? Bishop Luers is averaging nearly 73 points a game and has won their last eight games. Bluffton is averaging about 60 points a game and has won all their games. But to whom did Luers lose? Luers lost three games on the season 1) 4A South Side by 2 points, 2) 3A Indianapolis Howe by 16 points, and 3) 3A Harding by 10 points. All three are tough teams above the 2A level with winning seasons.

Luers had only three games all season at the 2A, 1A level (2A Woodlan, 1A Canterbury and 1A Blackhawk). Luers crushed Woodlan 69-46 and Canterbury 82-42. Bluffton, on the other hand, had only 1 4A contest this year (9-12 Connersville) compared to Luers 7 4A match ups. Bluffton had 11 games against 2A and 1A opponents. In fact, of all of Bluffton's 22 wins this season only Leo (11-10), Northfield (12-8) and Southwood (12-9) are over .500 this year... Leo barely qualifies at 11-10 and counts as one of Bluffton's lucky wins. Of Luers' 18 wins, 11 were against teams that are over .500. Luers, despite the three losses, seems far more battle-tested that Bluffton.

Lastly, in that article above about "Big Wells County Games of the Past," take note of the 1965 game between Ossian (17-1) vs. Garrett (17-1). The game that had to be moved to the Coliseum in Ft. Wayne because the Ossian Gym could not hold the over 8000 fans who showed up to watch. Ossian could not stop Chuck Bavis (who went on to star at Purdue with Rick Mount) and ended up losing in a blowout (87-56).

Who in the Bluffton lineup is going to stop the Mr. Basketball bound DeShaun Thomas.

Luers Show Choir Invitational March 8

The Bishop Luers 34th annual Show Choir Invitational will be on March 8 this year. Did you know that the online encyclopedia (Wikipedia) mentions this annual Luers event? What does Wikipedia have to say about Show Choirs?

Participants typically wear stage makeup and shoes conducive to dancing. Most costuming is brightly colored, often with sequins. Many show choir directors encourage the use of expressive movements of the face that assist in conveying the message of the song being performed.

I guess that about sums it up.

Bluffton vs. Luers Again

It was the Bishop Luers girls who knocked the Bluffton girls out of the Sectional... it appears the Bluffton boys will have to get by Bishop Luers (and DeShaun Thomas), as well. Bluffton though, is trying not to look ahead

In Class 2A, the area has three of the top four teams in the rankings with Bluffton at No. 1, Westview at No. 2 and Bishop Luers at No. 4.

While Bluffton is preparing for the playoffs, it also has the task of keeping its undefeated record alive (19-0).

The Tigers do it against five 3A teams in the month of February and knowing a matchup against 2A No. 4 Bishop Luers could be coming in the sectional finals.

"We are preparing to play over these (last) four games really against Luers because we know they have the most talent in the sectional," Bluffton coach Wayne Barker said. "That is going to take a huge task for us."

Bishop Luers Girls vs. North Miami

Luers wins the first match, 69 to 58 over North Miami in the Cass Regional. They'll move on to the final match aganst Oak Hill. Oak Hill is 23-0 this season.

Update: Luers made it close, but finally fell to Oak Hill 43-51 in the Regional finals.

Bellmont falls, Luers Rises

Bellmont 41, Elmhurst 58. Elmhurst is 22-2 so far this year and now advance to the Peru Regionals to face Leo.

Bishop Luers 78, Woodlan 40. Luers is 15-7 on the season and now advance to the Cass County Regional to face North Miami.

Luers Girls Defeat Bluffton

Fort Wayne Bishop Luers 54, Bluffton 46

Luers vs. Bluffton

The Bishop Luers vs. Bluffton Girls Basketball sectional matchup should be a good one. Luers seems to be peaking at just the right time, rolling over Wayne on Saturday 70-32 to close their season 13-7. Bluffton is 13-8, but allowed 1A Canterbury to pummel them in their final game of the season, 29-52. The Bluffton Coach turned down the Luers coaching position in the off season to remain with the Tigers.

Luers is ranked #4 in 2A, Bluffton is ranked #21 and Canterbury is ranked #3 in 1A.

As an aside, where are all the female girls basketball coaches?

More than a decade ago, 11 schools in northeast Indiana had women leading girls basketball programs. That number has dwindled to five for the 2007-08 season. Two of the conferences in this part of the state – the SAC and NHC – don't have any women coaching girls basketball.

North Side athletic director Dale Doerffler recently had a hiring process to replace Greg Friend, who moved over to Bishop Luers [to replace Sevens member Teri Rosinski who moved out of state]. After not receiving any résumés from female applicants, Doerffler interviewed former Northrop coach Greg Rahrer, former Wayne coach Mike Smith and former Bellmont standout Kip Jones for the position before hiring Rahrer.