Women's Basketball

Basinger Shines As Lady Pilots Move On To MCC Semis

Box Score

Final:

Bethel College Pilots: 82
MCC Tournament vs. Grace College: 68

Game Summary

Fresh off a career high 30 points vs. St. Francis this past Saturday, Bekah Basinger continued to sizzle, scoring 21 second half points to finish with 31 points total as NAIA No. 12 Bethel defeated Grace College 82-68 Tuesday night at the Wiekamp Center.  The victory was the ninth straight for Bethel as they improved their record to 22-7 on the season. 

Grace earned a shot at the MCC champs with a play-in victory Monday night over Goshen College and despite the back-to-back games, the Lady Lancers came out fresh and built a seven point lead over the rusty Bethel squad, 17-10 with just under 8 minutes left in the half.  A timeout by Bethel Coach Jody Martinez with 7:26 left in the half triggered a comeback by the Lady Pilots, as they outscored their guests  20-6 the rest of the way and led at the half 30-23.  Basinger’s 10 points led Bethel, while fellow sophomore Heather Seyfred added 7 in support.  The Lady Pilots struggled to put the ball in the basket in the opening half, connecting on only 33% of their shots (11-33) but forced 11 turnovers, most of them near the end of the half to spark the Bethel run. 

Bethel came out strong in the second half and built their lead to as many as 22 points, 78-56 before Grace made their final run in the last few minutes as most of the BC starters sat the bench.  Basinger was dominant in the second half as she paced the Lady Pilots with 21 points, including 4 of 6 from beyond the arc.  The sophomore forward from Kokomo was unstoppable in one stretch, scoring 14 straight points to open the gap and finish off the Lady Lancers.   MCC player of the Year Amber Peters scored 10 points and added 9 rebounds, while Seyfred canned 15 points to round out those scoring in double figures. 

“We started off the game sluggish and came out a little tight but give Grace credit as they came out and played like the #1 seed, not the #8 seed,” said Coach Jody Martinez. “Once we started to execute our game plan the momentum went into our favor. Bekah had another monster game shooting the ball and our bench did a nice job of giving us good minutes tonight.  We will have to play 40 minutes of Bethel basketball this Friday against Taylor for us to be successful.” 

Bethel will host Taylor University on Friday, February 27th at 7:00 pm in the Wiekamp Athletic Center.  The NAIA No. 25 Lady Trojans advanced with an 84-66 win over St. Francis.  The two teams split in their two regular season games, with both teams winning on their home courts, the latest a 78-68 Bethel win on February 18th.  The winner will advance to the MCC final on Monday, March 2nd.