By Greg Keim
The Bethany Christian Bruins got good play from their guards and their “bigs” in a 45-25 high school boys basketball victory Friday night at Elkhart Christian.
Six-four senior Seth Kauffman and 6-7 junior Hamilton Thorne tossed in 13 points apiece, leading the Bruins to their fourth consecutive win.
Five-ten senior Mikey Kelly and 5-8 junior Ben Bontreger handled the ball for the Bruins and fed it inside to the post players.
“Kelly and Bontreger may not have scored many points, but they did a nice job of taking care of the ball and getting the right passing angles to the post,’ Bethany coach Jim Buller said. “Hamilton has really improved and a lot of that is do to the one-one work (assistant coach) Trevor Daugherty did with him last April and May. Hamilton is developing confidence. We don’t want him forcing shots, but I felt at times tonight he was a bit to unselfish.
“Probably the biggest improvement in our team over the last month or so has been the guards getting the proper angles on passes into the post.”
Bethany (8-7) travels to Lakewood Park in Auburn Thursday.
The Bruins got off to a great start, taking an 8-0 lead in the Eagles before 6-5 senior Sean Addison broke the ice with a pair of free throws at 2:42.
Bethany went on to lead 12-5 after one quarter, 26-14 at halftime and 31-23 entering the fourth period.
“We didn’t look comfortable in the third,” Buller said. “But we settled down.”
The Bruins opened the fourth with a 14-2 scoring run and never looked back.
Bethany held ECA’s leading scorer 6-6 senior Drew Lyon to six second-half points.
“Lyon picked up two early fouls and the certainly helped us,” Buller said. “The highest compliment you can give a player is spending as much defensive early as we did trying to stop him.”
