SPENCERVILLE — Spencerville head boys basketball coach Kevin Sensabaugh was at the helm for his 100th varsity basketball game Friday night at “The Walk-In Closet.”

Too bad someone forgot to tell invading Bluffton that the Bearcats might want to celebrate with a win.

The Pirates outscored their hosts 11-3 over the final 4:12 to claim a 49-43 Northwest Conference victory.

“We stunk. We didn’t have the intensity we needed to play with, especially defensively,” Sensabaugh, who fell to 73-27, began. “I don’t know why we didn’t have it. Our defense created very little for our offense tonight; this season, defense has been one reason we’ve been able to overcome sporadic shooting.”

Spencerville (11-4, 3-3 NWC) shot a chilly 18-of-55 from the floor (4-of-18 long range) for 32.7 percent, led by 21 markers (3 bombs) from Isaac Bowers (5 steals) and eight by Logan Nourse. As well, they forced 19 Bluffton miscues (to their 11) but even that didn’t really jump-start their offense.

“We had a lot of concerns coming in. The biggest were containing Bowers and Nourse and not turning the all over at the top of the key and letting those two get layups,” Bluffton coach Todd Boblitt explained. “I thought we had a great game plan to guard those two and we never really let them get on a roll. The other, our guards did a great job of handling great defensive pressure and they got very few transition baskets.”

Bluffton (12-3, 5-1 NWC) had the tempo their way most of the time — with the biggest spread of eight — and that translated into a 34-33 Pirate lead entering the fourth. Donovan DeLong (17 markers, 9 boards) got two quick baskets to push that edge to five. Back came the home team, with five by Bowers and a Nourse layin putting them up 40-38 with 4:56 to go and forcing Boblitt to call a halt.

The visitors came out of that break and got a 3-ball from Adam Wietholter with 4:12 remaining to commence the killer spurt. Spencerville would miss its next eight shots; hitting 6-of-9 from the line (7-of-11 total for 63.6 percent), the Pirates built a 48-40 lead on two free throws by Patric Garlock (11 markers, 7 boards, 4 assists) with 24.2 ticks to go to seal the deal.

Bluffton’s offense was very efficient, shooting 20-of-38 overall (2-of-9 triples) for 52.6 percent.

“Bluffton controlled the tempo, no question. Again, we did nothing defensively to get them out of it,” Sensabaugh added. “We had some great looks the first half; we just didn’t knock them down. We’ve been up and down when it comes to shooting. We’re hitting 42 percent right now, which isn’t very good. It didn’t help that outside of Drew Ring (7 boards), we really didn’t have guys going hard to the glass to offset our shooting problems.”

Spencerville actually began with a decent-shooting first stanza (7-of-17). The pace was more to their liking and when Bowers swished a trifecta with 4.9 ticks showing, the lead was 16-8.

Bluffton then began to seize control of the pace — a slower tempo — in period 2 and pounded the ball inside to DeLong (9 markers in the span) and Kory Place (4 of his 11 overall). The result? Seven-of-12 shooting that got them within 24-23 on a mid-lane 4-footer from Place with a tick left.

“The other big key for us coming in was establishing the game the way we like it: a slower pace,” Boblitt added. “Outside of a couple of times where we got out of control, I thought our guards did a tremendous job of getting the ball where it needed to be and setting us up.”

Despite its offensive struggles and a tempo not to its desire, Spencerville held onto the lead in the third — that is, until Garlock drove baseline with 1:14 to go to give the Pirates that 34-33 edge.

Bluffton grabbed 31 caroms (5 offensive) and added a mere nine fouls. They host Lima Temple Christian tonight.

Spencerville nabbed 27 misses (12 offensive) as T.C. Horner added five. They totaled 13 fouls and welcome in New Bremen tonight.

In JV play, Spencerville (6-9, 2-4) won the fourth period 10-3 to emerge with a 37-31 victory over Bluffton (3-10, 1-5).

Andy Richardson led all scorers with 14 (4 treys) for the home team. Ben Eiserle countered with nine.