Bethel Over Spring Arbor
February 27, 2010
In an extremely hard fought contest, the No. 10 ranked Bethel College Pilots prevailed over the No. 21 ranked Spring Arbor University Cougars in an MCC Tournament semifinal game by the score of 65-57. The Pilots, now 27-5 on the season, move on to the MCC Championship game to be played next Tuesday evening at No. 3 ranked Indiana Wesleyan University. The two teams split their regular season contests with both teams winning on their home courts. In the first half of action, Bethel jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead as Tyler Brown tallied all seven points in the early going. However, the Cougars answered with a 7-0 run of their own to knot things at 7-7. The Pilots then scored the next eight points to re-take a 15-7 lead at the 13:37 mark. The margin grew to eleven (24-13) on a Ryne Lightfoot three-point basket before Spring Arbor charged back to trim the deficit to just three at 24-21. And at the break, Bethel held a 29-24 lead over the visiting Cougars. In the second half, the Pilots quickly increased their lead to ten (37-27) with 15:24 remaining in the contest. Over the next eight minutes of play, the Bethel advantage hovered between seven and thirteen points until a Caleb Laidig basket gave the Pilots a 54-39 cushion with 7:39 left to play. The Cougars were unable to get the deficit back to single digits again until the final couple of minutes, and the Pilots held on to seal the victory. Four Pilots reached double figure scoring in this one led by Ryne Lightfoot’s 17 point, seven rebound effort. Tyler Brown finished with 15 points and five boards, while Wes Laidig chipped in with 11 points for the day. Tony Benford contributed 10 points and six rebounds in the winning effort as well. Caleb Laidig tallied nine points including a huge dunk late in the game to go along with a game high six assists and three steals. Again, it was the Bethel defense that stood out as they held the Cougars to just 36% shooting from the field and 18% from behind the arc. The Pilots also won the rebounding war by the margin of 34-27. After the game, Bethel head coach Mike Lightfoot commented, “It certainly gets to be a grind when you’re playing a team for the third time. There are no secrets because both teams know each other so well. Although we didn’t do a good job containing Baisden, I thought we were pretty consistent at the defensive end today.” The MCC Tournament championship game is now set for Tuesday, March 2nd with the Pilots traveling to Indiana Wesleyan for a 7:00 pm tip-off.