Lady Cats Fall to # 5 Carroll College
MEZA, AZ – The Bethel Lady Wildcats had hoped to pull off the upset in their second of two games in the Cactus Frontier Classic in Arizona. After beating Montana State-Northern Tuesday, the Cats faced # 5 Carroll College Wednesday at Mesa Community College. The Saints prevailed with 74-48 victory.
A 11-2 run by Carroll in the last four minutes of the first quarter gave the Saints a 19-11 margin at the end of the quarter. Carroll led by as many as 14 in the second before Bethel cut it to 31-21 at the half. Board work was a problem for the Cats as Carroll had a 23 -12 rebound advantage at the break.
The Saints proved why they are worthy of their high ranking, outscoring Bethel 24-12 in the third to take command at 55-33 after three.
Carroll outscored the Wildcats 19-15 in the final frame to gain the win and moved to 13-2 on the season. Bethel saw their four-game winning streak snapped and fell to 8-5 on the year. The 48 points were a season low for the Wildcats.
Bethel shot 30 percent hitting 16-of-52 shots from the floor. A hot second half enabled the Saints to finish 30-of-53 at 56 percent. Carroll finished with a decisive advantage on the glass with a 40-23 rebound margin. Carroll also had a 25-6 advantage in bench points.
Ryann Roberts led Bethel with 14 points. Millie Bryant had 13 points and a team high six rebounds. Jamie Pickens led Carroll with 14 points.
Bethel played the game without Mickey Head and Jenna Foust.
Coach Chris Nelson shared his thoughts on the game. "Today we dropped a tough game to a very good Carroll team. Obviously, we were shorthanded without a couple key pieces but our players have been up for the challenge all year long. We played extremely hard, but it was difficult for us to get things going offensively. I think one reason is because Carroll does a nice job with their length, and they are a veteran squad. We missed Mickey (Head) today who we run a lot of things through. We have had a lot of moving pieces this first semester, but we are excited we should have our whole team back for the conference season."
The Cats return to action January 3rd as they jump back into league play at Freed-Hardeman. Tip-off in Henderson is slated for 6 p.m.
Live audio:
https://streamdb6web.securenetsystems.net/v5/WEIO
Live video:
https://www.gofhulions.com/stretch
Live stats:
https://gofhulions.com/sports/wbkb/2021-22/boxscores/20220103_iiju.xml