The Bethany men's basketball team Saturday faced off with UW-Superior in a matchup of the two top teams in the UMAC standings and came out with a 74-65 win. With the win the Vikings improve to 18-3 overall and 9-1 in the UMAC while the Yellowjackets fall to 13-8 overall and 7-3 in the conference.

Many coaches preach about basketball being a game of runs and that was evident early in this one. The Vikings were able to take a 7-0 lead capped off by a Mason Ackley dunk to start the game, but Superior would follow that with 10 straight points of their own. Justin Schrupp, Jax Madson, and Thomas Datka would then all connect from long range for a 9-0 Bethany run to put them back up 16-10. Schrupp would hit two more triples late in the half that helped propel the Vikings to a 33-22 lead before the Yellowjackets would respond to end the half, cutting the lead to 35-28 heading to the break.

Superior would come out of the gates strong in the second half, scoring 10 of the first 15 points to trim the Bethany advantage to 40-38 with 16:09 to play. Another Datka three would cap off a 7-0 run that put the Vikings up nine before UWS started a run of their own, eventually getting within one point at 53-52. The teams would then go punch for punch for the next five minutes, with Bethany maintaining a one-point lead until Schrupp buried another three to go up 65-61 with five minutes left. Second chance points then proved to be the difference in the waning moments of the contest. Drew Sagedahl would get an offensive putback on the front end of a one-and-one before Ackley came flying in with under a minute remaining for a tip in layup to put the Vikings up eight with 40 seconds left and all but seal the game.

Schrupp paced the Vikings in this one with 20 points thanks to 5-of-9 shooting from long range while also adding five rebounds. Madson added 12 points while Sagedahl and Hunter Nielsen scored 11 apiece.

Bethany is back in action next Friday when they travel to Crown College for a 5:30 p.m. contest