BELOIT — There was some good news coming out of Beloit College’s regular-season ending 70-42 loss at Lake Forest. At least the only injury suffered by the Buccaneers was to their egos.
“We’re healthy, with just our pride a little hurt after Saturday,” Beloit head coach Josh Hinz said.
Coming off a 117-97 win over Grinnell that clinched the Buccaneers’ first berth in the Midwest Conference Tournament in 22 years, they laid an egg against the Foresters.
“We didn’t play with any sense of urgency,” Hinz lamented. “I don’t know if it was a little hangover from the Grinnell game. I don’t know if it was because the seeds were already set for the tournament. It was disappointing. We got punched in the mouth early and we responded and I thought we’d be OK, but for one reason or another we did not have it that day. Lake Forest won all the effort points.”
The nice thing is that the Bucs (16-9, 9-7 MWC) can flush memories of that game quickly because their season didn’t end there. For the first time since the 2000-01 season, the Bucs are headed to the four-team MWC Tournament.
“The energy has been really good in practice,” Hinz said. “Hopefully, (Saturday’s loss) was just a hiccup and we’ve moved on.”
Top-seeded Illinois College (21-4, 13-3) will host the tourney in Jacksonville, Ill., on Friday and Saturday. IC will play No. 4 seed Ripon (11-14, 9-6) at 5 p.m. Friday. The No. 3 Bucs face a rematch with No. 2 Grinnell College (18-6, 12-4) at 7 p.m. The winners of Friday’s semifinals meet in the 3 p.m. championship game on Saturday.
The Bucs will head to IC on Thursday and practice there that night. You can bet they’ve studied what went right the last time and how Grinnell might adjust. Beloit shot 60.5 percent (46-76) from the field. Grinnell put up 50 treys in that game and converted 16, which is the Pioneers’ average for the season.
Grinnell is averaging 110.5 points per game while allowing 98.2. They cause 28.5 turnovers a game while committing 15.
“With the system they run, they don’t tend to deviate a ton,” Hinz said. “They might try to shade toward certain guys who are our better finishers. They might try to change some of their trap spots in the press in the backcourt. Offensively they can move some of their playmakers around on the floor. We’ll see. We’re making guesses what they might try, but it’s tough to tell until the moment is here.
“You hope for the same result. Every game is different. Just because you handled them a week ago doesn’t mean it’s going to be the same kind of game a week later.”
Hinz said his own team, while fairly efficient in executing its game plan last time, still can improve.
“We were good for the most part, but we definitely had some lapses defensively,” he said. “Maybe you can get away with it on your own court, but on a neutral court, playing in the conference tournament, you better be at your best.
“The hope is that they have an off night shooting. We guarded the three-point line pretty well the last time. We’re going to have to be ready for anything.”
Grinnell is led in scoring by Kai Te Huki’s 27.7 points per game. Gabe Garcia is averaging 17.7 and Jordan Lee 12.3. The Bucs, who average 71 points and allow 67.6, are led in scoring by Beloit Memorial grad Azeez Ganiyu at 14.3 points per game. Semaj Roy is the only other Beloit player averaging in double figures at 11.8. Clayton Jenny (6.6), Anthony Carter (6.6) and Jabari Scuefield (6.0) are next. The Bucs are great at sharing the ball, however, and anyone can go off against the Pioneers if they prove they can finish that night. Dae’Quan Davis came up huge in the second half for the Bucs last time, scoring 16 of his 18 points in the second half.
“I’m happy the guys have this opportunity,” Hinz said. “It has been a lot of fun this year. I’m happy we were able to do it with the model we did. We stuck with these guys for a couple of years rather than take the approach that you clean house if you don’t have a good season.”
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