MORRIS, Minn. – The Bethany Lutheran men's basketball team clinched at least a share of the UMAC regular season title on Saturday with a 74-72 win over Minnesota-Morris. With the win the Vikings move to 19-4 overall and 10-2 in the UMAC, while the Cougars fall to 12-10 overall and 7-5 in conference play.

UMAC Playoffs

With UW-Superior defeating Northwestern today, the Vikings now have a two-game lead in the conference standings and have claimed at least a share of the UMAC regular season championship. It marks the first time since 2017-18 that the Vikings have been conference champions.  With a win in either game next weekend, Bethany could claim the conference crown outright and be the #1 seed in the UMAC playoffs.

Bethany 74 - 72 Morris

The Vikings forced a Morris timeout just a minute and a half into this one, as they scored on their first three possessions to take a 7-0 lead. They didn't stop there though, as they replicated that effort with seven more before Morris got on the board to make it 14-2.

After a Xavier Patterson three to make it 17-2, Morris would score 11 of the next 13 of the next points to cut the deficit to 19-13 with 10 minutes remaining in the half. A pair of Hunter Nielsen free throws would push the lead back to 13 with seven minutes left, before Morris responded with 12 unanswered to get within one. Bethany would slowly extend its lead at the end of the half, taking a 41-35 cushion into the break.

The Vikings seemed to be gaining momentum int the early minutes of the second half, pushing their lead out to 12 points on a few different instances. Leading by 12 with 10:31 left, Morris would go on to score 14 of the next 15 points as they took their first lead of the game at 64-63.

The two teams would then play to an even score at 68 apiece, before Mason Ackley got a basket inside to take a two-point lead. The Cougars responded with a three with 3:16 left, but Jax Madson would make his way to the free throw line and sink a pair to retake the lead. Each team then posted a few empty possessions before Hunter Nielsen took a pass from Patterson and scored it to push Bethany to a three-point lead with just over a minute left.

After Morris split a pair of free throws and Bethany missed on the ensuing possession, it was Drew Sagedahl who came up with the big defensive play with a tough shot contest to force a Cougar miss with under seven seconds remaining.  Following the miss, there was a scrum for the ball before Jax Madson came away with it and was fouled with less than two seconds to play. Madson missed the front end of a one-and-one but even after a Morris rebound and timeout the Vikings were able to defend the full court play to escape with the win.

Patterson led the Vikings with 22 points in this one to go along with six rebounds. Sagedahl contributed 16 points to the offensive effort, while Nielsen added 13.

Bethany will be back in action next Friday when they host Northwestern at 5:30 p.m.