This week’s installment of ‘Will’ful Thinking is brought to you by the letter B.

It’s only fitting that be the case considering Todd Rehmert’s Owensville Dutchmen basketball team spent the some of their Thanksgiving holiday weekend at the 67th Borgia Turkey Tournament.

Before even one quarter of tournament basketball at Borgia’s Ray DeGreef Gymnasium was in the books last Wednesday night, one of Owensville’s Killer B’s quickly made his presence felt.

Missing all of last year with a knee injury, junior Macen Blankenship found himself with the basketball and less than five seconds on the clock at the tail end of the first quarter.

Turning towards the basket, Blankenship got a shot off halfway between the mid court stripe and the 3-point line to see it go in off the backboard.

“I knew I had to get a shot off before the (first quarter) buzzer went off,” Blankenship said. “Once I saw it go in, it felt great knowing my first shot after missing my sophomore year was a buzzer beater at Borgia of all places.”

As it would turn out, that would not be the only buzzer beater for Rehmert’s Dutchmen throughout the tournament.

Facing a very athletic Normandy Viking team in the consolation semifinals, Owensville found themselves trailing 39-31 with 3.7 ticks until halftime.

Following two Viking free throws, Abernathy caught the inbounds pass before taking a couple of steps and throwing a shot up and in from the volleyball line just on the other side of the half-court stripe.

“I just threw it up there and hoped for the best,” Abernathy said. “It was cool to see Macen (Blankenship) beat the buzzer against Borgia in his first shot of the season.”

Saturday against Union in the seventh-place game at the 67th Borgia Turkey Tournament, lightning struck twice for the Dutchmen in the sense that they had two buzzer beaters against the Wildcats.

Nursing a 19-18 lead with :30 left in the first quarter, Owensville played for the last shot with success.

Already with one buzzer beater in the tournament against Normandy, Abernathy went for another one and hit it from the Borgia logo giving the Dutchmen a 22-18 lead after one quarter.

“That was a big shot Trevor (Abernathy) hit at the end of the first quarter against Union,” Rehmert said. “He just had a solid tournament that deservedly earned him a spot on the All-Tournament Team.”

Once again seeing Owensville nursing a one-point lead at 30-29 with :32 ticks until halftime, the Dutchmen once again had the chance to play for the last shot.

Struck by lightning this time was Brendan Decker who banked in a long 3-point shot from the 10-foot volleyball spike line beating the halftime buzzer and bumping the Dutchmen lead to 33-29 over a scrappy Union Wildcat squad.

“It felt great to see that shot go in at the end of the first half,” Decker said. “I had a good feeling when I let it go that it was going to go in.

Going back to the reference about Owensville’s Killer B’s, Blankenship will be joined throughout the season by sophomore Derek Brandt and junior Bryor Bogle.

Bogle’s best game during the Borgia Tournament came against Normandy when he had six rebounds and two steals against the Vikings.

In addition to his memorable buzzer beater against Borgia, Blankenship also put up five points in the third quarter of Owensville’s high-scoring 83-72 loss to Normandy.

Forever owning bragging rights to being known as the original Killer B’s are Houston Astros baseball players Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Lance Berkman, Derek Bell and Sean Berry.

Biggio, Berkman and Bagwell are the most recognizable from their playing days with the Astros in the late 1990s.