MANKATO, Minn. -- The Bethany Lutheran men's basketball team (12-9 overall, 8-3 UMAC) snapped Crown College's (11-11, 7-4) four-game winning streak with a 102-77 victory Friday night. It was the third time Bethany eclipsed the century mark this season and was the Storm's first loss since the Vikings defeated them on Jan. 22.
 
A back-and-forth first half saw six lead changes and seven ties. Crown led 22-21 before a 9-0 run by BLC gave it some separation at 30-22 with eight minutes to play. The Storm came back with a run of their own to claim a two-point halftime lead, 41-39. 
 
The Vikings raced out of the second-half gates to go up by 12 at 55-43 just over three minutes into the period. 
 
Later, with the Vikings up 65-57, senior Brian Smith (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) and junior Hunter Nielsen (New Prague, Minn.) combined to score the next 16-straight for the Vikings to take an 81-63 lead with seven minutes to play. Three minutes later, a triple by Smith put Bethany up by 20, 89-69, to all but seal the win. 
 
Nielsen led all scorers with his career-high 30 points. He also finished with nine rebounds. 


 
Smith notched his career-high with 29 points. His all-around performance saw him record 11 assists and nine rebounds to fall just one board shy of his first career triple double. 
 
Senior Jacob Milinkovich (New Prague, Minn.) tallied 12 points and nine rebounds, and had game-highs in plus-minus while on the court (+30). 
 
Defensively, Bethany held Crown to 25-64 shooting overall (39.1%) and just 4-26 (15.4%) from deep. Meanwhile, the Vikings shot 39-71 (54.9%) from the field, including 7-15 (46.7%) on threes. 


 
BLC hosts Minnesota Morris tomorrow afternoon at 4:45 p.m. in its final regular season home game of the season.