PHOENIX, AZ–After their impressive 83-72 win Wednesday over the University of Providence, the No. 15 Bethel Lady Wildcats wrapped up their two game stent in the Frontier Classic in Phoenix Thursday in a match-up against No. 11 and undefeated Montana State University - Northern.
Thursday saw the Lady Cats pull off even a more impressive victory with a heart-stopping 62-59 win over MSUN. The Lady Wildcats moved to 11-4 while handing MSUN their first loss at 10-1.
Bethel led 13-8 at the end of one. The second stanza saw both teams trading buckets for the most part with Bethel leading at the half 29-27. Mickey Head led Bethel with ten points while Jani Crawford came off the bench with nine points.
The Lady Wildcats held a 40-31 lead with 3:45 left in the third. MSUN battled back with a 16-3 run to lead 47-43. Morgan Martin nailed a huge three-pointer at the buzzer to make it 47-46 at the end of the third.
The fourth quarter was not for the faint hearted. Led by Tasia Jones, Crawford and Tyasia Willis, the Lady Wildcats pulled out the hard fought victory. All three made huge plays down the stretch to enable the Cats to pull off the upset. It was the seventh ranked team Bethel has played on the season.
Bethel's board work, especially in the second half was a key factor. The Lady Cats finished with a 30-25 advantage in rebounds. Bethel shot 35 percent from the floor and was just 5-of-26 from three point land but offset those numbers going 17-of-21 from the free throw line. Montana State-Northern shot 46 percent and was 13-of-17 from the foul line.
Jones led Bethel with 15 points with ten of those in the second half. Crawford followed with 13 points. Head finished with 12 and Willis with 10 in the win. Peyton Kehr led MSUN with a game high 16 points.
Coach Chris Nelson said his team was able to grind out the big win." Today was a grind and we are really proud of our ladies for making big plays late in the contest. Montana State Northern does a great job of taking tour strengths away and making the game uncomfortable at times. Coach Price and Coach Sheets did a wonderful job on the scout and having us prepared for both of the two high quality teams out of the Frontier Conference. Phoenix has been good to us and this is a perfect ending to the semester before our ladies take a much needed break before jumping into conference play."
Bethel returns to action January 2 hosting Stillman in a SSAC match-up.
