MURRAY, Ky. - The No. 16 Bethel Lady Wildcats traveled to Murray, Kentucky Thursday to face the Murray State Racers in an exhibition affair in the CFSB Center. The Racers counted the game as a regular season contest and moved to 4-4 on the season with an 86-50 victory. Bethel remained at 10-2 on the year.
A cold night from the floor did the Lady Cats in, shooting just 22 percent hitting 13-of- 58 shots from the floor. MSU started slowly leading just 9-3 at the end of the first quarter but heated up and finished at 51 percent connecting on 35-of-68 from the field. The Lady Racers led 34-16 at the half and 66-39 at the end of three.
Murray had a 51-34 rebound advantage. Bethel had 18 turnovers while Murray State had 16 miscues.
MSU had a 52-14 advantage in points in the paint. They had a 24-2 advantage in points off turnovers.
Morgan Martin led Bethel with 19 points and nine rebounds while Myah Taylor finished with 17 tallies.
Evelyn Adebayo led the Racers with 21 points. She also had a game high 13 rebounds.
Bethel returns home Saturday to face SSAC rival Martin Methodist at 2 p.m.
MMC – Bethel Preview
Myah Taylor leads Bethel in scoring averaging 21.9 points per outing. She is fourth in the nation in scoring. She is No. 1 in the nation in made three's with 51 on the season. Morgan Martin averages 10.8 points per game and leads the squad in rebounding pulling down 8.0 boards per game. She also leads the team in assists with 41. Tyasia Willis leads the team with 19 blocks and along with Martin with 12 steals. Her blocks are 10th in the nation.
Bethel has made 115 three-pointers which is first in the nation. The squad averages 9.5 three's per game which is fifth in the country.
The Lady Cats average 76.4 points per game and yield 58.5 per contest. They pull down 44.2 rebounds per outing and hold their opponents to 31.6 per game. That rebound margin is 12th in the country.
Bethel is 9-1 when they lead at halftime. They are 9-1 when they out rebound their opponent. The Lady Cats are 9-1 when they out shoot their foes. They are 3-2 when the opponent makes more free throws and 2-2 when the opponent has less turnovers per game. The Lady Wildcats have hit at least one three-pointer in 395 straight games. The team has hit at least one three-pointer in every game Coach Chris Nelson has coached at Bethel. He is 261-134 and is in his 13th season with the Lady Wildcats.
The Lady Cats are 4-0 at home and 3-1 on the road. They are 1-1 in neutral site games. Bethel is 98-13 all-time in Crisp Arena. They are 42-2 against SSAC foes with the only two losses being to Martin Methodist.
Martin Methodist enters the game at 7-4 and 1-1 in the SSAC. The RedHawks are 5-0 at home. They are 1-3 on the road and 1-1 in neutral site affairs.
Samariah Thompson leads MMC in scoring averaging 11.3 points per outing. They have nine players who average five points or more per game. Bethany Lamon leads MMC in rebounding grabbing 7.7 boards per game.
MMC averages 68.5 points per game and yields 60.9 per contest.
Billy Evans is in his first season as head coach of the Hawks. Evans joined the RedHawks after nearly two decades of success among two Southern States Athletic Conference institutions.
Most recently, Evans spent the last six seasons as head coach at University of Mobile (Ala.).
During his tenure at Mobile, Evans amassed 106 victories and guided the Rams to two different conference championships and two trips to the NAIA national tournament. Prior to his tenure at Mobile, Evans spent 10 seasons as head coach at Belhaven (Miss.) University, a former SSAC member institution.
During his time at Belhaven, Evans helped guide the Blazers to a pair of SSAC Western Division titles and the 2012 conference tournament title. Evans also helped guide the Blazers to back-to-back national tournament appearances (2011, 2012) – the first national tournament berths in school history.
It will be the 29th meeting between the two programs with Bethel holding a 19-9 advantage in the series. It will be the 15th meeting in McKenzie with Bethel holding a 12-2 margin. MMC has won the last two meetings winning in McKenzie and Pulaski last year.
The game will be carried on WEIO, 100.9 and at: https://www.thefarmradio.com.
Fans can also follow the game on Wildcat Vision at: http://www.bethelathletics.com/WildcatVision
Live stats at: http://www.dakstats.com/Websync/Pages/Webcasts.aspx?association=10
