Bethel Defeated by Marian
February 9, 2010
The NAIA No. 8 ranked Bethel College Pilots suffered a disappointing MCC loss at the hands of Marian University on Tuesday night by the final score 83-69.
In a game that turned out to be a sloppy shooting and foul plagued affair, the Pilots jumped out to a 10-4 lead on a snowy night in Indianapolis. Bethel continued to build a lead in the first half and held its largest lead of the contest at the 14:23 mark of the first half at 15-6. From that point, however, the scrappy Knights squad began to battle back and eventually took a 21-19 lead on a Knights jumper at the 7:18 mark. Marian eventually carried a three point lead into the locker room at 32-29.
Things began to unravel in the second half as neither team was able to get into an offensive rhythm with 48 fouls called on the night. Marian took advantage of the charity shots shooting 27-35 from the line to build a double digit lead midway through the second half. The Pilots were never really able to challenge the Knights in the second half as they shot 38% (23-61) from the field and an abysmal 14% (3-21) from beyond the arc.
The Pilots had four players foul out on the night including leading scorer Tyler Brown who took his 19 points and 14 rebounds to the bench with 5:49 remaining in the contest. Ryne Lightfoot and Caleb Laidig each added 10 points a piece on the night.
The win for the Knights evens their season record at 12-12 and 4-9 in the MCC while the Pilots fall to 22-5 and 10-4 in the MCC
Next up, the Pilots go out of conference this Thursday night as they host Indiana University South Bend at the Wiekamp Center starting at 7:00 pm.
