WHEATON, Ill. – The Bethany Lutheran women's basketball team trailed Dubuque by just four points at the half but the Spartans put forth a strong effort in the second to take a 75-49 win. With the loss the Vikings fall to 0-3 on the year while DU moves to 1-1 on the year.
The Spartans came out in this contest in a full court zone press and dropped into a zone in the halfcourt and their length gave the Vikings problems from the start. Bethany would commit turnovers on three of their first four possessions of the contest before an Abby Skorenkyi three-pointer put them on the board. Turnovers continued to haunt Bethany though, as Dubuque would climb out to an 11-3 lead before Kaylee Hunter would find her groove and knock down a three followed by a two to cut the lead to 11-8. For the rest of the quarter, the two teams would play fairly even with DU holding a 19-15 advantage headed to the second.
In the second, the Spartans would score on their first three possessions of the half, with the Vikings committing turnovers on theirs as they would gain a 25-15 advantage early. Marissa Radtke would hit a jumpshot to end the run but DU would slowly build their lead, pushing it all the way to 15 points with 4:45 to go in the half. Bethany would answer the call to end the half though, outscoring Dubuque 13-2 in the final 4:23 to trail by just four at the break.
In the first 20 minutes, the Vikings shot 12-of-25 from the field at 48 percent compared to 15-of-33 from Dubuque for 45 percent. Bethany however, turned the ball over 19 times in the first half as opposed to just nine from DU.
The strong defense of the Spartans continued to stymie the Viking offense, as they would score the first 14 points of the second half to hold a 50-32 lead with 4:30 to play in the quarter. After being held scoreless the first five-plus minutes of the half the Vikings would slowly claw back, drawing the deficit to 14 points at 52-38 as the teams headed to the final 10 minutes of play.
The Dubuque offense woke back up in the fourth, catching fire from the field as they shot 10-of-17 while holding Bethany to 3-of-12 shooting to take the quarter by a margin of 23-11 and the game 75-49.
Gianna Klarenbeek led the Vikings in scoring in this one with nine points, while Lexiss Trygg also added nine off the bench to go along with a team best seven rebounds. Radtke also had a solid outing, scoring eight points, adding five rebounds, and dishing out a pair of assists.
Bethany will be back in action on Tuesday when they host UW-Platteville at 6 p.m.
Â
