MANKATO, Minn.—The Bethany Lutheran men's basketball team (4-3 overall, 3-3) dropped a heartbreaker, 83-80, to St. Scholastica (8-0, 7-0) Saturday.
 
The Vikings led 43-31 at halftime, but the Saints compiled a big second half.
 
The score was 83-79 in favor of the CSS with nine seconds to play. Junior Brian Smith (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) was fouled behind the arc, and made all three of his free throws, which made it 83-80. The Vikings then fouled to try to get the ball back. The St. Scholastica player missed the front end of a one-and-one, and sophomore Hunter Nielsen (New Prague, Minn.) grabbed the rebound. There was a conference between the officials about how much time was left, and BLC had the ball on the sideline in front of the Saints' bench. Bethany ran one more play, but the buzzer sounded before the three-point attempt left the shooter's hand, to seal the comeback win for CSS.
 
Smith finished with a double double as he had a team-best 21 points and 11 assists. Nielson had 20 points, junior Jerret Utpadel (Geneva, Minn.) had 11 and sophomore Justin Schrupp (Danube, Minn.) had 10 to complete those in double digits.


 
Nielsen was just shy of a double double of his own as he had a team-high eight rebounds.


 
The Vikings return to the court Monday when it travels to face North Central at 7 p.m. in the regular season finale.