Women's Basketball
Women's Basketball Stumbles In MCC Semifinal, Loss Leaves Lady Pilots Waiting
Game Summary
After winning nine straight games and a second consecutive Mid Central Conference title, the Bethel College women’s basketball team now finds their fate in the hands of the national raters with a loss to Taylor University 66-54 Friday night at the Wiekamp Center.
Bethel struggled from the outset and never could find a shooting touch, finishing an abysmal 28% from the floor for the game (19-67), and only 50% from the line (6-12). A sluggish start to the game somehow was salvaged at the end of the half as the Lady Pilots only trailed by three, 34-31, but Taylor jumped out to a 10 point lead early in the second half.
Mandy Yoder and Bekah Basinger rallied the Lady Pilots as the cut the lead to three points on two separate occasions, but Bethel was never able to take advantage of their brief momentum, allowing Taylor to control the scoreboard until the finish.
Yoder led the Lady Pilots with 21 points, while Basinger added 20, but the rest of the Bethel squad was able to contribute only 13 points total, on only five others made field goals. Bethel out rebounded Taylor, 40-35, including 20 offensive rebounds, but the horrid shooting was too much to overcome.
“I am very disappointed in our effort tonight,” said Bethel Coach Jody Martinez. “We did not come out and play like the Mid Central Conference Champions and that is hard to understand considering how we have been playing the last five weeks. We came out tentative and seemed to play with no confidence or energy. The frustrating thing now is that we’ll have to wait five days before we find out if we will make it to Iowa and the NAIA National Tournament.”
The Lady Pilots entered tonight’s game as the 12th ranked team in the NAIA and will wait for the final national poll, which should come sometime in the early evening on Wednesday, March 4th.
Bethel falls to 22-8 overall, while Taylor moves on to play in the MCC tournament championship game at Huntington University on Monday, March 2nd at 7:00 PM.
