MCKENZIE, Tenn. – The Bethel Lady Wildcats opened their season Friday night hosting the Annual Lady Wildcat Tip-off Classic. The Cats met the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy.
Bethel could not hold on to a second half lead and dropped a 77-69 decision to the visitors from St. Louis.
Bethel trailed 32-25 in the second quarter but finished the half with a 9-0 unanswered run to lead at the break 34-32.
The Cats extended their lead to 13 at 54-41 with 3:59 left in the third quarter. The Cats led 56-49 after three.
Behind the scoring of All-American Grace Beyer, UHSP outscored Bethel 28-13 in the fourth quarter to claim the eight-point victory.
Beyer finished with 45 points while teammate Elizabeth Allanach had 23. Beyer had 20 points in the fourth stanza.
Alyia Lee led Bethel with 19 points. Madison Hart had 14 points while freshman Kylie Reynolds had 10 points.
UHSP's free throw shooting was a huge factor. The visitors hit 24-of-29 from the charity stripe. Bethel connected on 11- of -19 attempts.
Coach Chris Nelson commented, "Our inability to come up with key stops really hurt us. It is a disappointing loss in front of a huge opening night crowd. We must learn from it and respond with a great effort tomorrow against a really good Philander Smith squad."
The Panthers beat No. 20 Freed-Hardeman 47-37 earlier.
The Cats meet Philander Smith at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
FHU will meet UHSP at noon.
Watch:
https://www.bethelathletics.com/watch
Stats:
http://bethelathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2023-24/boxscores/20231028_actf.xml
Tickets:
https://www.bethelathletics.com/tickets
