MCKENZIE, Tenn. – The Bethel Wildcats returned to the floor for only the second time in the last two weeks playing host to the Toppers of Blue Mountain Monday night in Crisp Arena. The Cats made the best of the opportunity beating the Mississippi visitors 98-82.
Bethel moved to 2-1 on the season while BMC dropped to 2-3. The Wildcats are 105-30 all-time in Crisp and moved to 13-2 versus the Toppers in McKenzie. The Cats lead the series 22-6 overall.
The Wildcats jumped out to an early lead before BMC erased an eight point deficit to catch the Cats at 18 all with 12 minutes left in the first half. Bethel would outscore the Toppers 29-18 and lead 47-36 at the half.
Bethel upped their margin to double digits early in the second half and withstood several Topper rallies to win by 16.
The Wildcats were led by Chandler Clements who had a team high 22 points and seven rebounds. Jarred Walker, another starter had a double-double with 16 points and 13 assists. Walker had more dimes than BMC which had a team total of 12. Kam Rose was a huge factor coming off the bench with a career high 18 points and 11 rebounds. Jamarius Mayberry was a part of Bethel's points off the bench advantage (44-16) with a career high 15 points. Brandon Williams led the Toppers with 29 points while Aleksa Vujadinovic followed with 25 points.
The Cats had a 47-25 rebound advantage and shot 49 percent (37-75) from the floor. The Wildcats knocked down eight three-pointers while BMC finished with seven treys. Bethel had 20 offensive boards and held BMC to only four. Blue Mountain shot 46 percent (30-65) from the field.
Coach Jeff Britt was pleased with the effort but said his team still needs to just play games. "I thought we did a good job overall but we are still a work in progress. This was only our third game and we are still learning each other and our staff is still trying to determine how different pieces of the puzzle fit together. Chandler, Jarred and Kam played well and helped us a lot tonight. Blue Mountain is a good team which will continue to improve and I see them getting a lot of wins this year. They have several guys that can score and hurt you." Britt added, "We are looking at our road trip to Campbellsville and Georgetown as a business trip. We will have to play well at both places against two of the best in the league. "
The Wildcats hit the road for two key MSC battles. They play at Campbellsville Thursday night at 5 p.m. CST and then at No. 1 Georgetown Saturday at noon CST
There will be no local radio for the games but here are the video and stat links for the games:
https://campbellsvilletigers.com/watch/?Live=1232&type=Live
http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statbroadcast.php?t=1&gid=camp
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/georgetown/
http://www.dakstats.com/Websync/Pages/Webcasts.aspx?association=10
