MANKATO, Minn.—The Bethany Lutheran men's basketball team (14-11 overall) came back from a double-digit halftime deficit to defeat fifth-seeded Wisconsin Superior (10-16) 80-78 Wednesday in a UMAC Tournament quarterfinal game. 
 
UWS hit five of its first eight three-point attempts to grab a 23-16 lead nine minutes in. Bethany held the Yellowjackets to just two points over the next six minutes to cut the deficit to two, but Superior took a 40-29 lead into the locker room. 
 
The difference in the half was three-point shooting, as the 'Jackets shot 8-13 (61.5%) from deep compared to the Vikings' 2-12 (16.7%) performance in the same category. 
 
Junior Hunter Nielsen (New Prague, Minn.) scored a team-high 11 first-half points, and senior Brian Smith (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) recorded six of BLC's eight assists prior to the break. 
 
The Vikings came out firing in the second half and only trailed by two, 47-45, with roughly 15 minutes remaining. Senior Brian Smith (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) scored 10 points in those first five minutes alone.
 
Three minutes later, freshman Drew Sagedahl (Olivia, Minn.) came off the bench and immediately canned a triple to tie the game at 53. The basket came in the middle of a 10-2 run that put the Vikings up five at 58-53 with 10 minutes to play. 
 
Superior hung around throughout the remainder of the game, but Bethany's lead was never relinquished. 
 
In the second half, BLC shot 16-30 (53.3%) overall from the field and only committed four turnovers. 


 
The Vikings got the better of a large disparity at the free-throw line as well, converting on 21-24 attempts (87.5%) while limiting UWS to just four trips to the charity stripe all night. 
 
Smith finished with a game-high 24 points, including 18 in the second half, and five steals. Nielsen scored 13 and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds. Senior Jared Milinkovich (New Prague, Minn.) completed those in double figures with 11 points.


 
Bethany will take to the road to face top-seeded Northwestern in St. Paul on Friday night in the UMAC Tournament semifinal round at 7:30 p.m.