BLUE MOUNTAIN, Ms. – The Bethel Wildcats jumped out to an early 7-4 lead Saturday afternoon at Blue Mountain only to see the Toppers score 11 unanswered points to lead 13-7. BMC would go on to lead 36-16 and Bethel would never reclaim the lead, falling eventually to the Toppers 93-74.
The Wildcats fought back to trail 45-39 at one point but a three-pointer at the buzzer gave the Toppers a 48-39 margin at the half. The Wildcats would never get closer than eight in the second half.
Bethel played without their third leading scorer as Cameron Ricks sat out with an injury. Jacob Rose was out with an injury as well.
Blue Mountain shot 58 percent hitting 38-of-65 attempts from the floor. Bethel was 26-of-52 at 50 percent. The Cats hit 17-of-25 free throws. The Wildcats committed 17 turnovers and saw BMC have a 27-8 advantage in points off turnovers. The Toppers had a 34-27 margin in rebounds. The Toppers had a 42-28 advantage in points in the paint.
Cayden Edmonson led the Wildcats with 18 points. Javonte Ellis had 17 points while Charles Cobb followed with 13 tallies. Six Toppers finished in double figures. Tyree Beason led BMC with 18 points.
Coach Jeff Britt said, "Give Blue Mountain a lot of credit. They got on a roll and we had trouble staying in front of them on the defensive end. The turnovers led to points for them and we could not overcome the hold we dug in the first half. We have to go back to work because we have two tough road games next week."
Bethel fell to 16-10 overall and 7-7 in the SSAC.BMC snapped a five game losing streak and moved to 12-10 and 5-9.
The Wildcats resume play Thursday night at Stillman College. Action begins at 7:30 p.m. The Tigers beat the Wildcats 72-67 in Crisp Arena on January 2nd.
Live video:
https://team1sports.com/gostillman/?B=167321
Live stats:
http://www.dakstats.com/Websync/Pages/Webcasts.aspx?association=10
