MANKATO, Minn. – The Bethany Lutheran men's basketball team Friday opened up UMAC play against North Central and came away with a win by a score of 72-63. With the win the Vikings improve to 5-2 overall and 1-0 in the UMAC while the Rams fall to 3-5 overall and 0-1 in the conference.



Bethany would get out to a quick start in this one, starting the game on an 11-3 run that was capped off by a Dominik Bangu three pointer and Mason Ackley dunk. Bethany would keep the eight point lead a few minutes later as they led 18-10 before Jax Madson converted in transition and then buried a three on the ensuing possession to put the home team up 23-10.

North Central finally found their groove offensively near the midway point of the half, scoring the next eight points of the contest before the two teams played back and forth for the remainder of the half with Bethany leading 38-31 at the break.

The teams played fairly even to begin the second half, with the Vikings holding a six point lead five minutes in. Bangu would then connect on another triple to spur the Vikings 12-4 run over the next six minutes. With Bethany leading 56-42, the Rams would slowly claw their way back into things, bringing the deficit to eight in just a three-minute span.

Bethany would extend their lead all the way back up to 12 points with 3:20 to go and seemed to be running away with the game, before NCU once again had an answer. They would get an and-one an knock down a triple with 1:35 to go to bring the lead down to six, but BLC would hit their free throws late and get stops on the defensive end to ice the game.

Ackley led the Vikings in this one, going 6-of-7 from the field and scoring 16 points to go along with seven rebounds. Hunter Nielsen also had a solid game with 14 points, while Xavier Patterson, Bangu, and Madson each also had double figures with Madson contributing a game-high nine rebounds.

The Vikings will be back in action tomorrow when they host Northwestern at 4:45 p.m.