By Greg Keim
Mikey Kelly saved his best for the fourth quarter.
The 5-10 Bethany Christian senior tossed in 14 of his career-high 17 points in the final period as the Bruins defeated the Clinton Christian Couriers, 62-52, in a high school boys basketball game Tuesday night at Bethany.
The Bruins led 42-40 after three periods before Kelly was 5-of-5 shooting, including 3-of-3 from 3-point range in the last one.
“The last five games Kelly has been shooting like that, just not often enough,” Bruin coach Jim Buller said. “Tonight he pulled the trigger at the right time.”
Kelly’s previous high was 15 points in a 65-56 loss to Fremont last season.
Bethany was leading 46-42 at 7:21 of the fourth when Kelly drained the first of his treys.
“Clinton kept coming back on us and that ‘3’ by Mikey fueled our defense,” Buller said. “It gave us a big lift.”
Clinton was 15-of-29 shooting over the first three periods, answering every scoring run the Bruins had. In the fourth, the Couriers were 5-of-13 and couldn’t respond to Bethany’s 12-6 run over the final 4:30.
“We couldn’t buy a basket in the fourth,” Clinton coach Chad Schrock said. “We had a nice run in the third, but Bethany kept hitting from outside. We were not xpecting Kelly to shoot like that.”
Bethany (7-7) travels to Elkhart Christian Friday. Clinton (12-5) visits Howe Military Saturday.
Six-four senior Seth Kauffman netted 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Bruins.
“Seth is not averaging 24 or 25 points per game anymore, but we are developing more scoring balance,” Buller said. “(Six-seven senior) Hamilton Thorne is coming along as a post player. With Kauffman and Thorne both in the game it opens up the outside shooting.”
The Bruins were 23-of-47 shooting (48.9 percent), including 8-of-15 (53.3) from beyond the arc.
“We had a number of kids relax and shoot the ball,” Buller said. “We knew coming in we would have to hit some shots from outside. Clinton is a which that likes to collapse on the post. Kauffman (six assists) is getting adept at passing the ball from the inside.
“The good news is that we took very opportunistic shots. We have players who are capable of shooting. Earlier in the season we were struggling with when to shoot.”
Thorne added seven points, 5-8 junior Ben Bontreger six and 5-11 sophomore Femi Hollinger-Janzen five for Bethany.
Leading scorers for Clinton were 6-4 senior Jordan Bontrager 17 points, 5-9 senior Dustin Yoder 14 and 6-3 junior Judson Yoder 10.
Bethany defeated Clinton 55-47 when the two squads meet in the Bethany Holiday Tourney in December.
“This game was a lot like the first one. We had to pull away at the end,” Buller said.
The teams have only played five times with the Bruins winning four of them.
“The matchup certainly has all of the makings of a rivalry,” Buller said. “Clinton plays fundamental basketball and they bring a good crowd. The one thing it lacks is they are not in our sectional. If they become IHSAA eligible, that could change.
“Since we are they bigger school we feel more pressure about having to win. We have a lot of respect for the kind of basketball Clinton plays.”
Schrock said, “We only have about 50 kids in our whole school. Bethany is a bigger school so they are under more pressure to win. Coach Buller does a very good job with his team.”
