LOGANSPORT - One by one, the people, most wearing Manchester red and black, consoled the coach standing in the hallway outside the locker room door.

Fifteen, twenty, thirty, who knows how the heck many. Some patted her arm. Some hugged her. One told her, "Keep your head up. You're awesome." Others murmured things like, "Heck of a run, Jody," or "We're so proud of you, Jody." Their quiet words of support interrupted the only other sounds, the muffled sobs of girls crying on moms' and dads' shoulders.

Minutes later, when the line of people thinned, Manchester girls basketball coach Jody Shewman turned to a reporter and said, "OK. I think I'm ready now."

For three quarters, Shewman never would have envisioned doing this interview, one following a loss. She didn't envision things like a 27-9 fourth quarter. She didn't envision Bluffton digging its way out of a 40-24 coffin with a minute left in the third quarter to win Saturday's Logansport 2A Semistate 55-49. She didn't envision a team that makes 5 of 20 free throws -Êthat's right, 5 of 20, 25 percent - and misses too many layups to be counted on one hand actually being rewarded with a win.

Out of the quiet hallway and back on the bright, noisy court where Bluffton players whooped and hollered and cut the nets, Bluffton coach Ron DeWitt, in the middle of the bedlam, would say: "I think we need to thank the Lord for this one. We were very fortunate. On our part, this was a very poorly played game for the first 2-1/2 quarters. Yeah, we're very lucky."

Bluffton (20-5) went on a 31-9 run the last nine minutes of the game to turn a 40-24 deficit against No. 9 Manchester (21-4) into a 55-49 win. After scoring 24 points in the first 23 minutes, Bluffton scored 31 in the last nine.

You want delicious irony? The team the Squires beat to open up the season in November was Bluffton, 53-51.

Now Bluffton ended Manchester's season in March. Bluffton meets Southridge (21-5) in next Saturday's state championship game at Market Square Arena.

"We discussed this a year ago in the spring with our kids," DeWitt said. "With class basketball coming on board, I really felt we had the people -Êif they worked during the summer - who could get us to the state level.

"Here we are."

With the class setup, there is only one state finals game in each class. When Manchester played Bluffton, the Squires were one of four 2A teams left in the postseason.

"What we're looking at is we got to the final four," Shewman said. "That's what we're talking about. We just made some mistakes, threw the ball away a couple of times."

Five-foot-10 senior forward Abby Salscheider scored 21 on 9-of-18 shooting for Bluffton. Guard Rachel Miller added 14, while guard Lori Wolf added nine.

What went wrong, you ask? Anything and everything. A Bluffton team that couldn't hit layups and free throws (1 of 13) through the first three quarters couldn't miss in the fourth quarter. The Tigers scored 28 points on 12-of-44 shooting from the field in the first three quarters; they scored 27 points on 10-of-14 shooting in the the fourth quarter.

Salscheider, who averages 26.3 points per game, is Bluffton's best player, but Miller and Wolf keyed the run that put Bluffton back in the game.

The two, who were a combined 4 of 21 from the field in the first three quarters, went 4 of 6 in the fourth quarter.

When the third quarter ended, Blutton had trimmed the Manchester lead from 40-24 to 40-28. The Tigers were down 12, yes, but Salscheider's offensive rebound and putback as time ran out in the quarter sent the message: Bluffton wasn't out of it yet.

No, the Tigers weren't.

The break between the third and fourth quarters didn't slow their momentum. They started the last quarter on a 15-2 run to take their first lead since 6-5 in the first quarter. Not only did they lead, they led 43-42 - with 4:37 still left on the clock. All the Tigers needed was just a hair under 3 1/2 minutes to turn a 40-28 deficit into a 43-42 lead.

Miller and Wolf, who had hit three three-pointers in the first 24 minutes, hit three three-pointers in the opening three minutes of the final quarter to fuel the 15-2 run.

"At the end of the third quarter, we were down 12," DeWitt said. "I told the girls, that's only six baskets. I knew we could get six baskets back in short order. We missed that many in the third quarter alone we could have had."

Once Bluffton got the lead, Salscheider made sure the Tigers kept it. She scored eight points in the final three minutes as Bluffton never gave the lead back.

Offensively, the Squires became disjointed. A Manchester team with guards as its biggest strength suddenly struggled to get the ball up the floor without throwing it away against Bluffton's press. They'd sliced and diced presses all year, until now.

And when the Squires did get the ball to their end, they no longer could put it in the hole. After making nearly 50 percent of their shots through three quarters (18 of 38), they hit only 2 of 10 in the fourth quarter.

They quit doing the things that made them successful, like taking the ball to the rack. Instead, they stood on the perimeter and settled for jump shots.

Shewman said circumstances on the floor forced her players to play that way.

"We weren't getting anything called," she said. "We got the ball knocked away from us when we drove to the middle, and the (referees) didn't call any fouls. Things like that. But it's OK."

Back in the hallway after the game, someone said, "They just ran out of gas." Manchester had played and beaten Bishop Luers 55-44 in the second game that ended early in the afternoon, a physical brouhaha that featured players hitting the floor in crumpled heaps.

But Shewman wouldn't bite, wouldn't blame players in crumpled heaps or an early afternoon game as the reason Bluffton outscored Manchester 27-9 in the fourth quarter.

She wouldn't blame fatigue as the reason the shots quit falling in the final eight minutes.

Asked if fatigue caught up with her players, Shewman said: "Maybe a little. I don't know. I think it did, but I don't want to say that. We just got into wrong situations and got a couple of bad calls, didn't get a lot of calls for us. That's the breaks."

Shooting allowed Manchester to build a comfortable 29-18 halftime lead. The Squires hit 13 of 23 (56 percent) field goals in the first half, while Bluffton hit 8 of 26 (31 percent). Defensively, they turned Bluffton into a one-man team - Salscheider - and even held her down, keeping her to a quiet nine points the first half by making sure two players always surrounded her. Outside of Salscheider, only one other player, reserve Amber Mowery, hit more than one basket in the half. Mowery had four at halftime.

Senior guard Katie Parker, who has played varsity for Manchester since her freshman year, turned in a memorable all-around performance in her last game. She finished with 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. Junior forward Megan Eckert added 16 points, while Jodie Peden had 10 points and five rebounds.

Shewman loses four players - including three starters - to graduation. They are starting guards Parker and Peden, starting center Lindsay Seagert and reserve Jodee Ruppel.

One of the biggest tasks facing Shewman will be finding a way to replace her backcourt. Parker and Peden were team leaders who directed the offense and sparked the defense.

"I hate to see our seniors go," Shewman said. "They've been through a lot. They've seen the good, the bad and the ugly. They finished strong and gave us everything they got. I don't want to see them go, but I gotta let them go." [[In-content Ad]]