ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Bethany Lutheran men's basketball team's comeback effort against Northwestern fell short on Saturday as they dropped the contest by a score of 83-79. With the loss the Vikings move to 13-3 overall and 4-1 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC), while the Eagles improve to 8-8 overall and 3-2 in the conference.
UNW came out of the gates strong in this one, as they would score on their opening five possessions to gain an 11-3 lead just 2:19 into play. Mason Ackley would key a run with five straight points before Drew Sagedahl and Jax Madson connected inside the arc as well to give Bethany a 12-11 lead. The Eagles would once again hit their stride, going on a 15-7 run over the next 4:44 to hold a 26-18 lead with just over 10 minutes to go in the half. They would eventually extend their lead to 11 at 37-26 before the Vikings would fight back to cut the deficit to 39-37 with four minutes remaining. Scoring would be tough to come by the final few minutes, as the Eagles would push to a 45-41 lead headed into the break.
The second half was a battle from start to finish, as the teams would trade leads in the early going of the half. Neither team held more than a four-point lead from the 15:50 mark to the 6:25 mark, where a pair of free throws would put the Eagles up five. They would push their lead to as much as nine with two minutes to play but baskets on back-to-back possession from Sagedahl and Ackley would cut the lead to five. An Eagle dunk was answered by a three from Sagedahl to bring the lead to four before Ackley got a steal and Sagedahl connected from mid range to cut the lead to two with 20 seconds left. The Vikings seemed to get a five second call on the ensuing inbounds but the Eagle coaching staff was able to squeeze a timeout in and after a successful inbounds they would knock down the free throws to push their lead to four. The Vikings missed a pair of shots on their final possession as the Eagles took the win.
Sagedahl led the Vikings with 22 points while Ackley had a strong showing with a 20 point, 12 rebound double-double.
Bethany will next be in action on Friday when they host Minnesota-Morris for a 5:30 p.m. contest.
