By Cort Reynolds

The visiting Bluffton High School girls basketball team put three players in double figures to defeat Elida 45-39 in a non-league contest Tuesday evening, January 10.

Bluffton improved to 9-4 with their second road victory. The Bulldog girls dropped to .500 at 7-7 with the defeat.

The Pirate girls held a narrow 16-14 lead after the first period. Elida led 12-11 before Sami Scoles canned a triple and fed Julia Mehaffie nicely for a layup. 

The visitors stretched the margin to 29-21 at halftime.

Bluffton held a 39-30 edge heading to the final quarter. The Pirates led by as many as 13 in the fourth before Elida cut the final gap to six.

Sophomore post Ayla Grandey led the victors with 14 points and 11 rebounds with one blocked shot. 

Riley Eachus tallied a dozen points with two triples. Her long left side triple swished through with just under five minutes left in the first half to provide Bluffton some breathing room at 23-17. Eachus added two steals and three rebounds on the night.

Moments later, Mehaffie scored inside to stretch the lead to eight, a margin they kept going to intermission. 

Smart southpaw Scoles made a nice steal and sped coast to coast for a layup and a 27-19 lead.

Pirate senior point guard Scoles then rifled a diagonal pass through the defense to Grandey for a layup to give the Pirates a 29-19 cushion late in the half.

Scoles returned to action after missing a game with a knee injury. She scored 11 points and doled out seven assists. She also grabbed seven rebounds and made two steals.

Mehaffie added eight points on four of five shooting.

Grandey's post-up basket gave the Pirates an 11-point lead early in the fourth period. 

Scoles drove the lane to bounce in a shot and give the Pirates their biggest lead of 13 with 5:46 remaining.

Elida pulled within 43-35, but Blufton milked over a minute off the clock with a delay game. Grandey then tallied an uncontested lefty layup off a long Scoles sideline in-bounds lob. Her basket with 2:50 to go built the lead back to 10.

A backcourt steal and a Bella Lopez 14-footer inched Elida within 45-39 with 1:25 left. Elida stole the ball again, but missed a costly front end of a one-and-one free throw.

Bluffton then ran out most of the final minute.

Addisyn Freeman led Elida with 10 points and a game-high 15 rebounds.

Bluffton canned 20 of 41 shots from the field (49 percent), including 17 of 27 deuces (53 percent) and three of 14 shots from three-point land (21 percent). 

Bluffton converted two of its five free throws (40 percent).

The Bulldogs made just 14 of 52 field goal tries (27 percent), hitting on 10 of 31 two-pointers (32 percent) and four of 21 triples (19 percent). They converted seven of 14 foul shots (50 percent).

Elida narrowly won the rebound battle, 32-31. Bluffton made 16 turnovers compared to 10 errors by Elida.

The Pirates outscored Elida in the paint, 30-10.

Bluffton 45 (9-4)

Eachus 5-10 0-0 12, Giesige 0-2 0-1 0, Mehaffie 4-5 0-1 8, Scoles 5-11 0-0 11, Grandey 6-11 2-2 14, Fleece 0 0-0 0, Grothause 0-1 0-0 0, Utendorf 0-1 0-0 0. 

Totals 20-41/2-5/45. 3-pointers (3-14): Eachus 2-7, Scoles 1-5, Grandey 0-2.

Elida 39 (7-7) 

Ramirez 5-10 0-0 13, Hunter 1-2 0-0 2, Lopez 1-8 1-2 3, Freeman 3-12 4-7 10, Gladen 0-0 0-1 0, Ward 0-5 1-2 1, Kuhn 2-8 1-2 5, Mitchell 2-7 0-0 5.

Totals 14-52/7-14/39. 3-pointers (4-21): Ramirez 3-7, Mitchell 1-4, Lopez 0-2, Freeman 0-2, Hunter 0-1, Kuhn 0-5.

           1       2      3      4       F

Eli      14      7      9      9      39

Bluf    16     13     10     6      45

Unbeaten at home (7-0), the Pirates (1-2 NWC) host league leader Leipsic (13-1, 4-0 NWC) Thursday, January 12 in a key conference battle. The Vikings beat Cory-Rawson 47-37 Tuesday.

Bluffton then entertains non-conference local rival Pandora-Gilboa (1-11) Saturday afternoon, Jan. 14. Ottoville beat P-G 61-20 Tuesday.