Lady Cats Beat No. 1 Seed Cumberlands in MSC Semi-finals & Advance to Finals
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – After their impressive win (84-58) over Georgetown in the MSC Quarterfinals on Saturday, the No. 5 Bethel Lady Wildcats used a strong first half Monday afternoon against No. 1 seeded the University of the Cumberlands in the semi-finals of the Mid-South Conference and advance to Monday's finals. The Cats held off a late UC charge to beat the Patriots 72-62.
The Cats led 19-16 at the end of the first quarter and after a 23-13 advantage in the second quarter, Bethel led 42-29 at the half.
The Lady Cats led by 17 at one point of the third quarter but Cumberlands fought back, and Bethel's lead was 52-44 at the end of three.
It wasn't easy as the Pats made a run to pull within six several times late in the game.
The No. fifth ranked Lady Patriots are 24-5 and will await their official bid to the national tournament which will be released Thursday.
The No. 16th ranked Lady Cats (22-7) held on to move on to the finals and meet the winner of the Campbellsville/ Freed Hardeman game at 5 p.m. Tuesday night.
Stats: https://lindseyathletics.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Stream: https://team1sports.com/midsouth/
MSC Women's Basketball Tournament Page: https://mid-southconference.org/documents/2025/2/22//MSC_WBB_Tournament_2025.pdf?id=468
Game recap:
- The Lady Wildcats shot 37 percent from the floor
- The Cats knocked down seven three-pointers
- Bethel was 18-of-24 from the free throw line
- Madison Hart led Bethel with 23 points and 12 rebounds
- Micah Hart scored 17 points
- Mikee Buchanan had 10 points
- Bethel won despite UC having a 67-40 margin in rebounds.
- Leeana McNulty led the Pats with 12 points
- Kassie Monday scored 11 points for UC
- The loss was the second in a row for UC, both at the hands of the Lady Cats
- Bethel had never beaten the Patriots until those games
- The win marked the 398th career win for Coach Nelson
Coach Nelson commented on the big win. "We knew coming into the year we had the talent, but we were really new together and had to go through some growing pains during conference play. I love to watch them play with so much passion and joy. Our staff really cherish getting to coach this young group. They have something you can't teach. Obviously, the job is not finished, and we are excited to have this team another day together to compete for a championship."