By Brandy Bidlack, sports information assistant

The Bluffton University men's basketball team traveled to Raven country to face HCAC rival Anderson University on Wednesday, December 8, 2010. The Beavers tied the game late in the second half, but the Raven offense proved to be too much for Bluffton as the men lost their second straight conference contest. The Beavers slipped to 5-2 overall with a mark of 1-2 in the Heartland Conference. Anderson improved to 2-1 in HCAC action and 4-2 for this season.

Junior Brent Farley (Lima/Shawnee) ignited the Bluffton offense as he drove to the hoop for two. At the 15:45 mark, freshman forward Dustin Kinn (Alvada/New Riegel) responded to four Raven points with a layin. Less than a minute later Josh Fisher (Rockford/Parkway) added two more tallies for the visitors, putting the Beavers up 6-4.

With 7:27 on the clock, Kinn snatched an offensive board and put it back up to pull the Beavers within two, but Anderson ended on a strong note with a 20-10 spurt. A pair of Farley freebies cut the deficit to 12 points (37-25) going into halftime.

Twenty seconds into the second half, a Fisher layup sparked Bluffton as the Beavers chipped away at the Raven lead. At the 14:32 mark Mychal Hill (London/Jonathan Alder) hit the trey, bringing Bluffton within five.

Three minutes later, the visitors caught up with Anderson thanks to a Kinn layup. Responding to a Jarrin Forte triple, Fisher sank one of his own from behind the arc to tie the game at 49. The home team used a 21-10 jag to open a 70-59 lead en route to the 76-68 win over the Beavers.

Mychal Hill paced the Beavers with 19 points while fellow juniors Nate Heckelman (Norwalk) and Nick Lee (Vanlue) pulled down nine and seven rebounds. Kinn went for a career-high 14 points and six boards. Fisher and Farley added 13 and 10 points, respectively, while freshman Will Pope (Somerville/Preble Shawnee) swatted away two Raven shots.

Brock Morrison and Phil Hogan both tallied 16 points for the home team while grabbing 11 and eight boards, respectively. Forte chipped in 13 points while teammate Andrew Bowman contributed 12 tallies for Anderson.

The Beavers hit 26-of-56 (46.4 percent) and the Ravens made 29-of-63 (46 percent) from the field. The visitors tallied two more triples than Anderson (7-5), while Bluffton went 9-of-15 (60 percent) from the charity stripe compared to 13-of-21 (61.9 percent) for Anderson. The Ravens pulled down three more rebounds (38-35) and forced six more turnovers from the Beavers (15-9).

The Bluffton University men's basketball team will travel to Franklin, Indiana, on Saturday, December 11 to face the Grizzlies in another HCAC matchup. The contest is slated to begin at 2 PM.