NORTH MANCHESTER - Jody Shewman and her basketball players had a little extra motivation to win their season opener against Bluffton.

And it wasn't because of anything Bluffton did or didn't do.

It's what the pollsters didn't do.

The coach and her Manchester girls basketball team always want to win, but there was added incentive this time. The Squires wanted to win Saturday's game against Bluffton, because this would be exhibit A for them in proving the prognosticators, or in their case, naysayers, wrong.

The Bluffton Tigers, 12-9 last year, cracked Hoosier Basketball magazine's 1997-1998 preseason top 10 poll and received votes in the Associated Press poll.

Manchester, 14-6 last year with four returning starters, did not.

The Squires seethed. Bluffton paid. Manchester won 53-51.

"Some of the kids had seen Bluffton was ranked in Hoosier Basketball magazine," Shewman said. "We were a little upset we weren't ranked in there. Who knows about those polls and how they get them. Just beating a ranked team is going to be a confidence builder for our group."

"Give Manchester credit," Bluffton coach Ron DeWitt said. "They're a good team coming off a 14-6 season. We thought we were good#. We're going to have to go back and reassess.

"We weren't willing to go out and fight. This was a toothless Tiger today."

The game highlighted two of the most talented players around, 5-foot-8 Manchester junior forward Megan Eckert and 5-10 Bluffton senior forward Abby Salscheider. Eckert averaged 19.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last season, while Salscheider tallied 24 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.

They delivered. Eckert scored 25 on 9-of-18 shooting, grabbed nine rebounds and two steals and had two buzzer-beating shots.

Salscheider scored 26 on 12-of-18 shooting and pulled down 13 rebounds.

But Salscheider's key number may have been two. With eight seconds left and Manchester ahead 52-51, Salscheider traveled. With four seconds left and Manchester up 53-51, she lost the ball as time ran out.

Eckert had help from senior guards Jodie Peden and Katie Parker. Peden turned in an all-around game with 11 points, eight assists, five rebounds and two steals. Parker tallied nine points, five rebounds, four steals and three assists.

Outside of Salscheider, Bluffton's only major source of offense was Rachel Miller, who scored 12 and hit key shots down the stretch.

The Squires, who expect shooting to be one of their biggest strengths, won even though their touch left them at times. They made just 18 of 53 shots, 36 percent.

While their offense went cold, the defense didn't. Bluffton committed 24 turnovers, which more than made up for Manchester's shooting woes. The Squires did a good job attacking the passing lanes and came away with 12 steals.

"We had a lot of steals and deflections," Shewman said. "I thought my underneath girls did a good job of reflecting the ball and the guards picking it up. I think we had 12 steals and quite a few assists."

The Squires led from start to finish, save 90 seconds in the second quarter. Eckert's first buzzer-beater came on an off-balance runner as time ran out at the end of the second quarter, giving Manchester a 23-20 halftime lead.

Then Eckert, who hit only 3 of 8 field goals the first half, took over in the third quarter, scoring seven points in 57 seconds to put Manchester ahead 40-30. Bluffton proved resilient as Miller's steal and layup capped a 6-0 run to make it 40-36 with eight seconds left in the third quarter.

Too much time. Manchester forward Christy Markstahler whipped a pass upcourt to Eckert, who drained a three-pointer from the left wing as time expired. Manchester led 43-36.

"We have this drill where we do a catch and shoot and pray it goes in," Shewman said. "Hitting both of those was a big momentum builder for us."

Bluffton players' shoulders sagged and heads drooped as they walked off the court.

If they were demoralized then, they had to be devastated when Eckert opened the fourth with another three-pointer, pushing Manchester's lead back to 10 at 46-36.

While it looked like Manchester had crushed Bluffton, the Tigers peeled themselves off the floor and back into the game, playing their best basketball in the fourth quarter. Suddenly they valued the basketball, taking care of it and scoring points.

Having Salscheider never hurts, either. Salscheider scored Bluffton's first seven points of the fourth quarter, trimming the Squires' lead to 50-45. When Bluffton's other threat, Miller, nailed back-to-back threes, Manchester's lead shrank to 52-51 with two minutes left.

Bluffton wouldn't score again. The Squire offense stalled to run time off the clock. Peden added a free throw in the waning seconds for the 53-51 final score.

"We attacked the basket and became more aggressive in the fourth quarter," DeWitt said. "Still, we had too many turnovers and too many missed shots underneath. We're not playing at the middle school level."

While Salscheider scored 26, the Squires kept her from going off in any one quarter. She scored six points in each the first and third quarters and seven points in the second and fourth quarters.

Then they thwarted her down the stretch, causing her to commit two turnovers in the last eight seconds.

"I just told the girls you have to watch her driving through the middle," Shewman said. "She's sneaky. Just play defense. You can't focus on one girl, or the other four will beat you. I thought we did a nice job of staying in her face and pushing her a little bit."

Bluffton is 0-1.

Manchester, 1-0, is at Concordia at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday. [[In-content Ad]]