Bethel Dominates Huntington
February 6, 2010
The No. 9 ranked Bethel College Pilots ran their current winning streak to five with a 79-62 win over MCC rival, Huntington University on Saturday afternoon in front of over 2000 fans in the Wiekamp Athletic Center.
The Foresters jumped out to an early 12-7 lead before the Pilots rallied to go in front 14-12 at the 13:59 mark. The rest of the period was a back and forth battle which featured nine ties and three lead changes. In addition, neither team was able to build more than a four point cushion as the Pilots went to the break with a 36-35 advantage.
The second half began with Huntington hitting a three-point basket to jump back in front 38-36. However, Bethel answered with a critical 12-0 run to assume a 48-38 lead with 15:19 left to play. The Foresters trimmed the deficit to five (51-46) before the Pilots went on another 10-3 spurt to gain control at 61-49. From there, Huntington was unable to get any closer than nine as the Pilots improved their season mark to 22-4 and 10-3 in MCC play.
Leading the way for Bethel was senior, Ryne Lightfoot who tallied 25 points to go with 4 assists. Tyler Brown turned in a double-double effort scoring 16 points while grabbing a game-high 14 boards. Wes Laidig chipped in with 9 points and 4 rebounds, and Caleb Laidig contributed 8 points and 4 assists in the winning effort.
Defensively, Bethel held the Foresters to just 39% shooting from the field and won the rebounding battle 37-30. Meanwhile, the Pilots shot 63% from the field in the second half and finished with 17 assists for the game.
After the game, Bethel head coach, Mike Lightfoot commented: “At halftime, I challenged our seniors to step up and take charge. I told them that they didn’t have many games left, so they needed to make the most of things now. I think it worked because we showed more focus and played with more energy in the second half.”
If you were unable to attend today’s contest, you can see it tonight on WHME-TV Channel 46 at 11:00pm. Meanwhile, the Pilots will be back in action on Tuesday night, February 9th, when they will travel to Indianapolis to take on the Marian College Knights in a game set to tip-off at 7:00pm.