Lady Cats Close out Road Portion of Regular Season at UTS
PULASKI, Tenn. – The Bethel Lady Wildcats close out the road portion of their regular season Monday night in Pulaski against rival Tennessee Southern.
The important late season matchup finds Bethel tied for fifth with Freed-Hardeman and UPIKE at 10-9 in MSC play. UTS is on their heels at 9-10. FHU is at Cumberlands (KY) Monday night. UPIKE is at No. 2 Thomas More. For a complete look at the league standings and schedule visit: https://www.mid-southconference.org/full-standings/19/5
The Cats are 16-12 overall while UTS is 14-11.
The teams met earlier in McKenzie on February 5 with Bethel prevailing 63-52. Dating back to when UTS was Martin Methodist it marked the 35th meeting between the two programs. Bethel leads the series 24-11.
After a season low quarter of just six points in the first stanza which saw Bethel trail 15-6, the Lady Cats hung tough outscoring the visitors from Pulaski 15-11 in the second.
UTS led 26-21 at the break but Bethel went on a run, outscoring the FireHawks 24-10 in the third. Behind the scoring of Jenna Foust and Ryann Roberts, Bethel led 45-36 at the end of three.
The Cats led by as many as 19 in the fourth and moved their record to 14-10 overall and 8-8 in the MSC. UTS dropped to 13-9 and 8-8. The Lady Cats improved their all-time home record in Crisp Arena to 129-23. Bethel has won five of their last six outings.
Bethel shot 36 percent from the field. The Cats shot 50 percent in the second half. UTS shot 30 percent in the game. The Lady Cats had 39-24 rebound advantage and are 11-0 when outrebounding their opponents. The effort on the boards led to a 18-7 margin in second chance points. Bethel knocked down eight three-pointers while the Hawks were 5-of-25 in three-point attempts.
Balance scoring by Bethel was a huge key. Roberts had 16 points. Millie Bryant finished with 14 while Foust had 13 points. Bryant also had eight rebounds. Keely Morrow was a factor with 10 tallies. Mickey Head was a stalwart with eight points and a game high 14 rebounds. She also had three blocks.
Taylor McNairy had a game high 18 points for UTS.
Millie Bryant enters the game with 1,342 career points and 620 career rebounds. She is 10th in program history in scoring and 10th in career rebounds. Earlier this season she became just the 10th Lady Cat to score 1,000 points or more and collect 500 rebounds or more
Mickey Head enters the contest with 867 career rebounds and 268 career blocks. She has 1, 250 career points with 767 of those as a Lady Wildcat.
Trends & Numbers:
Bethel is 15-1 when they outshoot their opponents.
The Cats are 15-3 when they hit more three-pointers.
The Lady Cats are 13-0 when they outrebound their opponents.
Bethel is 12-0 when leading at the half.
The Cats are 10-7 when they have less turnovers.
Bethel is 9 -2 when they score 70 or more points in a game.
Coach Chris Nelson is in his 16th season as head coach of the Wildcats. He is 345-166 and he all-time wins leader in program history. He is 15th in wins among active coaches in the NAIA.
Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. CST
Live stats:
https://www.utsfirehawks.com/sports/wbkb/2021-22/boxscores/20220214_37h6.xml
Live video:
https://utsfirehawks.com/watchlive