Lady Wildcats Close Out Regular Season with Winning Surge
PULASKI, Tenn. – The Bethel Lady Wildcats closed out the regular season at UT Southern Saturday. The Cats finished the regular campaign as one of the hottest teams in the MSC, winning five of their last six. The 58-52 win saw the Lady Cats move their mark to 13-15 and 9-13 in the league.
Bethel finishes as the 8th seed and will face 9th seeded in the upcoming MSC Tournament.
(See details below)
UTS ended the day at 6-21 and 3-19.
Keely Morrow led Bethel with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Madison Hart finished with 15 points and seven rebounds. Alyia Lee had 11 points.
Bethel shot 38 percent from the field and hit five three-pointers. Bethel has hit at least one three-pointer in 547 straight games. Bethel's cause was aided with a solid effort from the free throw line, connecting on 15-of-20 shots from the line. UTS was one of one from the charity stripe. The Cats owned a 36-23 advantage in rebounds.
UTS stayed in the game hitting nine three-pointers. The Firehawks shot 36 percent from the floor. Mary Mackie led UTS with 24 points.
Bethel finishes as the 8th seed and will face 9th seeded Cumberland University in the upcoming MSC Tournament.
(See details below)
Mid-South Conference Women's Basketball Tournament Bracket Released
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Mid-South Conference officials released the 2023 MSC Women's Basketball Tournament bracket Saturday following the conclusion of the conference's regular season.
The 2023 tournament features opening-round games at on-campus sites with the winners of those games joining the top-four seeds in Bowling Green for the remainder of the tournament.
Opening-round games are slated for Tuesday, Feb. 21 at the higher-seeded team in the matchup. The quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 23 and Friday, Feb. 24, the semifinals are slated for Sunday, Feb. 26, with the championship game on Monday, Feb. 27, all at Bowling Green Arena.
Campbellsville (Ky.) is the tournament's top seed after winning the regular season with a 21-1 conference record. As the MSC's regular-season champion, the Tigers earn one of the conference's two automatic bids into the NAIA National Tournament in March.
Thomas More (Ky.) (20-2 in the MSC) is the second seed, Pikeville (Ky.) (16-6) is the third seed, and Cumberlands (Ky.) (16-6) is the fourth seed.
Pikeville received the higher seed based on the conference's second tiebreaker. After the two teams split during the regular season -- with head-to-head competition being the first tiebreaker -- Pikeville defeated the higher seeded team in the tournament. Cumberlands and Pikeville both had two losses to Campbellsville. The Bears beat Thomas More during the regular season while Cumberlands suffered two losses to the Saints.
Fifth-seeded Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) (19-9, 13-9) hosts No. 12-seed Wilberforce (Ohio) (0-22) in the first of four opening-round games. Sixth-seeded Georgetown (Ky.) (12-10) hosts No. 11-seed Tennessee Southern (3-19) while No. 7-seed Shawnee State (Ohio) (10-12) hosts No. 10-seed Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) (4-18).
Eighth-seeded Bethel (Tenn.) (10-12) hosts No. 9-seed Cumberland (Tenn.) (9-13) in the final opening-round game.
The four opening-round winners advance to the quarterfinals played over two days later next week.
The tournament champion receives one of the conference's two automatic bids into the NAIA National Tournament. If Campbellsville wins the tournament, the tournament's runner-up receives the second automatic bid.
Watch for Game Notes on Tuesday's game later at www.bethelathletics.com