MANKATO, Minn. – Sophomore Justin Schrupp (Danube, Minn.) scored a career-high 23 points to help the Bethany Lutheran men's basketball team (3-0 overall, 2-0 UMAC) remain undefeated in the 88-76 win over Crown (0-3, 0-2) Thursday night. He shattered his previous personal best of 14 points, which he accomplished twice last season.
Four teammates joined him in double digits as senior Brian Smith (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) had 18, sophomore Hunter Nielsen (New Prague, Minn.) had 14, junior Kaden Vaughn (St. Charles, Minn.) had 11 and senior Jared Milinkovich (New Prague, Minn.) had 11 points and added a team-best 11 rebounds.
The Storm led 24-22 nine minutes into the game, until the Vikings compiled a 5-0 run over the next two minutes to take the 29-27 lead. Crown sliced the margin to one at 31-30 as Cody Christensen converted a three-point play with 6:35 to go. BLC answered with a 5-0 run over the next 90 seconds to push the lead to six (36-30). The Vikings later led 50-39 at halftime and Nielsen had 10 points.
Schrupp scored the first 14 of Bethany's 16 points in the first seven minutes of the second half, as it continued to lead by double digits for the duration of the contest.
The Vikings owned both field goal percentage categories, and the battle of the rebounds (50-38).
BLC concludes its four-game homestand Saturday against UW-Superior at 3 p.m.
