BELOIT—Josh Hinz has drilled the importance of winning the battle on the boards again and again into his Beloit College men’s basketball team.
If the Buccaneers happen to be struggling in the clash on the glass? Well, it doesn’t take long for them to learn their head coach’s thoughts.
“Trust me, if we are ever losing the rebounding battle at halftime, they hear about it,” Hinz said.
So, while Beloit held a slight 18-16 advantage in rebounds at intermission of a tied 37-37 game against Knox College, the Bucs knew they had to be better on the boards.
Beloit responded and outrebounded the Prairie Fire 22-12 in the second half to spur their offense and take a hold on the third-place position in the Midwest Conference with a 78-62 win on Saturday afternoon at Flood Arena.
“They’re taking pride in (rebounding),” Hinz said. “They're trying to chase the all-time team rebound record in a year. It's important to them, which not too many teams care about that kind of stuff. We do."
The program record for boards in a season was set by the 1980-81 squad that grabbed 1,026 of them. This year’s Bucs sit at 928 with two games to go.
“We noticed that we weren't doing our thing, which is rebounding,” said junior Semaj Roy, who finished with six rebounds and 17 points. “That's what we rely on every night. We had to keep (Russell Wright) off the boards. So that's what we did.”
This Beloit team is also trying to achieve another thing that hasn't been done in some time: make the conference tournament.
The Bucs (15-8, 8-6 MWC) are in third and hold a one-game lead over Monmouth (13-10, 7-7) and Ripon (9-14, 7-7), who are in a tie for fourth, which would be the final spot in the tourney.
Beloit has not made the tournament since the 2000-01 season, but it controls its destiny and would be in with wins over second-place Grinnell (17-5, 11-3) and sixth-place Lake Forest (8-15, 6-8).
“We just have to do what we did today and shoot the ball,” Roy said. “We're going to make sure people get the right shots at every time. We're going to play Beloit basketball.”
Roy helped the Bucs pull away out of halftime. He scored 12 points, hitting on everything from layups to jumpers to a trey, as Beloit surged ahead for a controlling 59-46 lead.
“Semaj can definitely score in bunches, Hinz said. “And he really chooses to be assertive. It’s hard for anybody to slow him down. He's starting to see what he truly is capable of when he puts the pedal to the metal.”
Azeez Ganiyu scored nine points over the last seven minutes while Roy added a three and two free throws as Beloit, not allowing Knox to get many second-chance buckets, pulled away.
The Prairie Fire used hot-shooting to jump out to a 10-3 lead over the Bucs to start before senior Michael Myles, being honored with graduate student Caden Anderson for senior day, hit four treys to help Beloit, which finished the half 8-12 on threes, gain a 22-20 advantage.
"Caden comes out and hits a three right away," Hinz said. "And Mike hits a few there in the first half, they both gave us a really good lift."
The Prairie Fire used shots from under the rim and the free-throw line to go ahead 37-32 but Ganiyu hit two from the charity stripe and Anthony Carter sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the first half with a tie.
Ganiyu finished with 15 points while Myles had 14 and added six rebounds. Jabari Scuefield snatched six boards, as well. Sean Gallery scored 20 points for Knox.
Beloit will face the Pioneers, known for their frequent player rotations and rapid shooting offense, on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m
“It's a mindset game though with those guys,” Hinz said. “You have to know there's going to be a lot of mistakes that are going to happen just with how fast paced the game is. Typically, the team that can just get on to the next play the best is usually the one that's going to turn out okay.”
• BOXSCORE:
BELOIT 78, KNOX 62
Knox 37 25 — 62
Beloit 37 41 — 78
KNOX (fg-fga ft-fta pts) — Gallery 6-12 7-10 20, Gessert 4-7 0-0 11, Nwosu 3-6 3-4 10, Milot 3-15 2-2 9, Andrews 2-7 0-0 6, Wright 2-3 0-0 4, Baackes 1-1 0-0 2, Windham 0-4 0-0 0, Stewart 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 21-56 12-16 62.
BELOIT (fg-fga ft-fta pts) — Roy 6-9 3-3 17, Ganiyu 5-6 4-6 15, Myles 5-9 0-0 14, Jenny 3-4 0-0 8, Rusch 3-4 0-0 8, Carter 2-6 1-2 6, Anderson 1-5 0-0 3, Scuefield 0-5 2-2 2, Lewis 0-2 2-2 2, Davis 1-2 0-0 2, Nixon 0-1 1-4 1. Totals: 26-53 13-19 78.
3-pt. Goals: KC 8-24 (Gessert 3-6, Andrews 2-5, Milot 1-4, Gallery 1-3, Nwosu 1-3, Windham 0-3), BC 13-27 (Myles 4-6, Roy 2-3, Jenny 2-3, Rusch 2-3, Anderson 1-4, Ganiyu 1-2, Carter 1-2, Lewis 0-2, Scuefield 0-1, Nixon 0-1). Fouled out: Myles. Total fouls: KC 16, BC 15. Rebounds: KC 28 (Wright 10), BC 40 (Roy, Myles, Scuefield 6). Assists: KC 13, BC 15. Turnovers: KC 7, BC 12.
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