By Ryan Schadewald, sports information assistant

Stats http://www.bluffton.edu/sports/womensbasketball/2013/12-08-wb.htm

The Bluffton University women’s basketball team played their first HCAC home contest of the season on Saturday, Dec 8, 2012 on Community Day inside the Sommer Center against the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 'Fightin' Engineers'. The Beavers (5-2, 1-2 HCAC) fashioned a 59-50 victory over the Engineers (2-4, 0-3 HCAC) for their first win of the season in HCAC play.

Bluffton was led by freshman Brooke Ruffer (Stryker) who scored a career-high 22 points and grabbed a team-leading six rebounds on the afternoon. Junior Rachel DeBord (Lebanon) also contributed 17 points for Bluffton in the win.

RHIT led the game for the first six minutes, although it was never by more than four points. Bluffton’s first lead came at the 13:27 mark following a jumper by Taylor Whitaker (Mansfield/Lexington) that made the score 13-11.

However, the first half would continue to go back and forth until the 10:31 mark, when the home squad went on a 9-0 run over a span of six minutes for a 26-19 lead with 4:14 left until the break. The run was started by a Ruffer layup. DeBord nailed a three and Ruffer hit another layin before junior Lauren Hutton (New Riegel) capped it with a chip shot. Both teams would trade 5-0 runs before Kelsey Ploof converted just before the break, cutting the Beaver lead to 33-28.

The start of the second half was owned by the home team. Bluffton came out on fire, going on an 11-0 run which started with nine straight points by DeBord and finished with a Ruffer layup. Although the Beavers led 44-28 at the 16:27 mark, RHIT responded quickly and cut the lead to six with a 14-4 spurt. The run was capped by a Lauren Meadows jumper at the 7:02 mark.

However, the Beavers would not let the visitors get any closer. After free throws from Kylee Burkholder (West Unity/Hilltop), Ruffer drained a jumper to push the lead back to 10 with 4:31 remaining. RHIT’s Addie Johnson dropped in two foul shots and Lauren Meadows buried a jumper to cut the lead to six, but Bluffton answered with a  Mikayla Coburn (McGuffey/Upper Scioto Valley) layup and two free throws from Taylor Knight (Perrysburg) which made it a 10-point game at the 1:14 mark. An Addie Johnson free throw with five seconds left made the final score 59-50 in favor of the Beavers.

Ruffer converted 8-of-14 from the field and 6-of-8 from the foul line for 22 points on the afternoon. She also led the Beavers with six boards, four of them being on the offensive end. She added two assists, a steal and a block. DeBord shot 7-of-13 from the floor, including 2-of-2 outside the arc, and she hit a free throw, adding up to 17 points on the day. She handed out a team-best three assists and led the Beavers with three steals.

Bluffton’s suffocating defense forced the Engineers into 31 turnovers on the day, while the home team committed just 13 miscues. Rose-Hulman dominated the boards, 39-21, in the loss to Bluffton, however, the Beavers shot 42 percent (21-of-50) from the floor and went 14-for-19 (73.7 percent) at the line. RHIT hit 39 percent (16-of-41) from the floor and were a superb 14-of-15 at the charity stripe.

The Beavers are off this week to take final exams. They return to action next Saturday, Dec. 15, at 2 p.m. when they host Transylvania University in the Sommer Center. The women’s contest will precede the men’s game against Transy. The men’s matchup is slated to tip at 4 p.m.