Bethel Dominates St. Francis
February 20, 2010
The No. 12 ranked Bethel College Pilots traveled to Ft. Wayne on Saturday afternoon to meet the No. 10 ranked University of St. Francis Cougars in the MCC regular season finale looking to gain some momentum for the up-coming conference tournament. Mission accomplished as the Pilots played perhaps their most complete game of the season in routing the Cougars 95-68. The win was the third in a row, and the eighth in the last nine contests for the Pilots who raised their season record to 25-5 and 12-4 in MCC play – good for a second place finish in the conference standings.
The game began with the Cougars jumping out to an early 14-9 lead before the Pilots went on a 17-6 spurt to go ahead 26-20. St. Francis answered by cutting the margin to a single point at 28-27 with about 8:00 remaining in the period. That’s when the Pilots went to work using a huge 17-2 run to take control of the game 45-29 late in the half. And when Bethel’s Ryne Lightfoot connected on a 15 foot bucket at the horn, the Pilots went to the break with an impressive 53-34 advantage.
The second half began with Bethel converting the first four points to increase the margin to 57-34 before the Cougars mounted a bit of a comeback effort. Using a 12-4 run, St. Francis cut the difference to fifteen at 61-46. However, the Pilots never allowed the margin to get any closer as they out-scored USF 16-7 over the next few minutes to take a 77-53 lead heading into the game’s final 10:00 of action. As time ran down, Bethel senior, Derek Moser capped the Pilot scoring for the day with a field goal making the final score 95-68.
The Bethel offensive and defensive efforts were equally outstanding in this contest. Leading the Pilots was Ryne Lightfoot who tallied 21 points to go with 6 assists for the game. As a result, Ryne went over the 2,000 point mark in his career, now with 2,011. Caleb Laidig likewise turned in a stellar performance with 20 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals. Tyler Brown contributed 18 points and 4 assists while Tony Benford chipped in with 13 points and 2 assists. In addition, Wes Laidig tallied 8 points, and Jordan Bowerman had a solid game for the Pilots with 6 points and 6 boards.
As a team, the Pilots were excellent in several areas. From the field, Bethel connected on a blistering 61% of their shots while holding the Cougars to just 35% shooting. From behind the three-point arc, Bethel hit on 5 of 9 attempts for 56% while the Cougars managed just 17% from long range (4 for 23). From the charity stripe, the Pilots were good on 22 of 27 attempts (82%) and won the rebounding battle 40-27.
“This was a great way for our seniors to end the regular season,” stated Bethel head coach, Mike Lightfoot. “The guys played very well and we needed some quality minutes from our bench. Jordan Bowerman played a great game and stepped in nicely for an injured Wes Laidig. It was fun to watch us play today.”
The 2010 MCC Tournament gets underway on Wednesday night, February 24th when the Pilots (the number two seed) will host the Marian University Knights at 7:00 pm in the Wiekamp Athletic Center.