Bethel-Tate head coach Tom Jutze has the Tigers in position to control their own destiny in the Southern Buckeye Conference National Division.
Bethel-Tate head coach Tom Jutze has the Tigers in position to control their own destiny in the Southern Buckeye Conference National Division. (Photo/Ralph Adams)

By Chris Chaney
Sports Editor

Despite a strong start that was followed by a rash of injuries to key players, the Bethel-Tate Tigers still have their No. 1 goal within their sights.

With three of the Tigers’ last five contests coming against Southern Buckeye Conference National Division rivals, including road games against the two teams that sit above them on the standings table — Blanchester and Williamsburg — Bethel-Tate can still grab a piece of the conference crown for the first time since 2010.

“Our league is very competitive — the National Division. Anyone can beat any body as we are seeing right now,” Bethel-Tate head coach Tom Jutze said. “As we currently speak (on Monday, Feb. 2), Williamsburg holds a one-game lead over us and CNE. We do control our own destiny. If we win out over our last three games, we will get a share of the league championship.”

While Burg is the team to beat currently, Blanchester is a half game up BT and CNE and a half game back of Williamsburg, meaning that any of the top four teams in the division can find themselves winning at least a piece of the title.

The Tigers have gotten to this point thanks to a quick start to the season in which they won seven of their first nine games, including three of their first five in the league.

A duo of juniors — Tommy Bingamon and Trenton Weeks — has led the squad, each averaging more than 14 points per game. However, Bingamon is expected to miss the remainder of the season after suffering a broken ankle in the Tigers’ 57-55 loss to Batavia on Jan. 19.

“We need other people step up in his place,” Jutze said. “It’s unfortunate for Tommy, but it’s an opportunity for someone else to step up.”

The coach mentioned sophomore Jacob Reinhardt has filled that vacancy admirably, working hard on the boards bringing down rebounds for the team. On the offensive end, Jutze said that a scoring-by-committee approach has led the way in the three games since Bingamon went down.

On the bright side, Caleb Bastin recently returned the line up after missing the first half of the season dealing with a back injury suffered during the football team’s playoff run.

“We lost one of our better players, but we picked one back up that was a starter last year for us, but we’ve never really had that coherency of everyone healthy at one time,” Jutze said. “Unfortunately, we’re going to have to play that way the rest of the season.”

Bethel has also been without forward Hunter Wallace who has been sidelined with a knee injury.

“We’ve had the injury bug, but the core of our team is our juniors. They’re the ones, more or less, who have to step up. Our seniors have done a good job.” Jutze said. “Collectively, we’re always looking for someone else that we can lean on. Besides Trenton, we’re looking for that second, third, fourth guy to come in there, produce and help us.”

In the home stretch of the season, Bethel will play three of their last five games on the road — at Blanchester (2/5), at Ross (2/6) and at Williamsburg (2/12) — with Georgetown (2/9) and Fayetteville-Perry (2/16) visiting the Tigers’ home court.

They will also compete in the annual cross-division SBAAC Tournament on Feb. 13, where they will be matched up against the corresponding finisher in the American Division.

From there, the next big date for Bethel-Tate fans to circle is the coaches seed meeting on Feb. 7 at Lakota West High School at 2 p.m.

Jutze will be on hand to select the sectional bracket in which the Tigers will compete. Those results will be posted on the Southwest District Athletic Board website following the completion of the brackets at swdab.org.