Lady Wildcats Use Big Second Quarter to Beat Eagles

MCKENZIE, Tenn. – The Bethel Lady Wildcats played host to Life University Saturday afternoon in Crisp Arena. Bethel clipped the visitors from Marietta, winning 62-36.

The Lady Cats used a huge second quarter to erase a one-point deficit at the end of one. Bethel led 39-22 at the half after outscoring the Eagles 25-7 in the quarter.

Bethel forced Life into 16 turnovers and had a 16-1 margin in points off turnovers. Bethel had a 31-27 advantage in rebounds. The Lady Cats are 6-1 when they win the battle of the boards. Life had just two offensive rebounds in the game. Bethel held Life to 31 percent from the floor. The Cats hit nine three-pointers and  had a 20-4 margin in points off the bench.

Millie Bryant was honored before the game as she recently became just the 10th player in program history to have 1, 000 or more career points and 500 or more career rebounds. Bryant led Bethel with 14 points and eight rebounds. She finished the night with 1, 130 career points and 529 rebounds. Keeley Morrow and newcomer Jenna Foust had nine points each. Foust had a team high three assists. Ashton Hulme had eight boards and seven points.  Madison Henagar finished with six points and five boards. 

 The Cats moved to 7-4 overall and 2-3 in the MSC. The Running Eagles dropped to 4-9 and 1-5.  Bethel is now 4-0 all-time in the series between the two programs.  

Bethel is 7-2 at home this season and moved to 135-22 all-time in the arena. Bethel played the game without Mickey Head who sat out with an illness.

Coach Chris Nelson was pleased with the win." We are extremely proud of our effort today. We really shared the basketball well and created for each other in the half court and full court.  Madison (Henegar) and Ashton (Hulme) stepped up big in the absence of Mickey today. It was good to finally get Jenna (Foust) in the mix as well.  We have two big challenges to finish off our first semester and we are looking forward to the challenge out in Phoenix."

The Lady Cats fly to Phoenix Sunday to compete in the Frontier Classic. They play Montana State-Northern Tuesday at 11 a.m. CST. The Cats face # 5 Carroll Wednesday at 11 a.m. CST.

Live stats:

https://naiastats.prestosports.com/sports/wbkb/2021-22/boxscores/20211221_xw8p.xml