Women's Basketball
Lady Pilots Clinch Share Of MCC Title With Win Over Taylor
Game Summary
Very few people thought that the Bethel College women’s basketball team would be in the position they found themselves in Wednesday night. After losing nine players and all five starters from last year’s MCC championship team, the NAIA No. 13 Lady Pilots entered Wednesday night’s showdown against NAIA No. 18 Taylor University with a chance to claim at the very least a share of another MCC regular season crown.
It was senior night for Bethel, as the Lady Pilots honored six seniors including Brittany Cook, Kelsy McKee, Amber Peters, Dani Steenbeke, Rachel Hirschy and Kady Rodriguez. On this night, it was Brittany Cook who fought off the tears of a pregame ceremony and then went out and played the best game of her career. With the Lady Pilots struggling to find a post game presence all season, Cook picked the perfect time to resurrect her game, scoring a career high 17 points and grabbing 6 rebounds to spark Bethel.
Taylor shot an amazing 56% from the floor in the first half, connecting on 13 of 23 shots from the floor. But despite the hot shooting, Bethel still held a nine point advantage at the break 42-33, led by Heather Seyfred’s 11 first half points. Taylor took an early lead at 18-10 but the Lady Pilots got a huge lift from freshman Jordan Robbins, who came off the bench and knocked down all three of her shots, including 2 of 2 from behind the arc to carry Bethel back into the game.
Bethel jumped out early in the second half and led by as many as 13 points, 54-41 at the 14:00 mark before holding off a furious Taylor comeback in which the Lady Trojans cut the gap to 4 points with 2:23 to go. Some big defensive stops down the stretch and timely shooting from the foul line carried the Lady Pilots to the finish. Bethel held Taylor to just 27% from the floor in the second half and forced 20 turnovers, while committing only nine themselves.
The victory thrilled a crowd of supporters which often include many of the player’s teachers. “This has done my heart more good than any surgery ever could,” said Bethel Professor Dave Schmidt. Fellow Professor and huge Lady Pilot fan Tim Erdel added, “What this team has been able to accomplish is amazing, considering where they came from at the beginning of the season. The coaches are geniuses and the Lady Pilots are all heart!”
“I’m really proud of this team. From preseason to the present, my staff and I had confidence that this team is a contender,” said Coach Jody Martinez. “Tonight they came out and proved it, sparked by an amazing performance on senior night by Brittany Cook. Our goal was to defend our MCC title of last year and although we have at least a share of the title, a win Saturday would give us the conference title outright.”
Mandy Yoder led the Lady Pilots with 20 points, while Brittany Cook added 17 and Heather Seyfred 16 respectively. The Lady Pilots travel to the University of St. Francis Saturday with a chance to win the conference title outright, as well as the No. 1 seed in the upcoming conference tournament.
