MANKATO, Minn. - The Bethany Lutheran women's basketball team Thursday night hosted UW-River Falls and fell by a score of 77-65 . With the loss the Vikings move to 1-8 on the season while the Falcons move to 6-3.
Lexiss Trygg would get a pair of back-to-back layups early for the Vikings as they would get out to an early 8-7 lead. UWRF would start to find their mark from beyond the arc though which proved to be a theme for the first half as they would connect on consecutive threes to help spark a 12-0 run and led 19-8 with 2:30 to go. Trygg would connect twice more inside down the stretch but the Falcons would finish the quarter outscoring Bethany 8-6 to lead 27-14 after one.
In the second the two teams would each score seven in the first five minutes to make the score 34-21 midway through the frame. The Falcons though would once again leave their mark on the game with sharp shooting, as they would pound it inside for a pair of baskets before connecting on all four of their three point attempts down the stretch to lead 52-27 at the half.
River Falls shot 8-of-14 from downtown in the first half and 5-of-6 in the second quarter, while Bethany shot 3-of-3 from beyond the arc in the first half with
Brea Mertz making all three for the Vikings.
The Falcons would jump out of the gates quick in the third as well as they would stay hot from long range, using two early three pointers to go on an 8-4 run and lead 60-31. They would hold the lead there, as the two teams would trade baskets down the stretch of the third and UWRF would hold a 73-41 edge headed to the fourth.
Megan Wegner would kick things off in the fourth with five quick points to bring the deficit to 73-46. After the Falcons would push their lead to 77-48 with 8:17 to play, that would be the last time they would find the bottom of the net as all the scoring belonged to Bethany from there. The Vikings would score 17 unanswered points to finish the game as they fell by a score of 77-65.
Trygg led Bethany with 14 points while Wegner added 13. Mertz had her best career game off the bench, as she scored 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc and added two steals.
Bethany will wrap up play before Christmas break on Saturday when they travel to Hamline for a 1 p.m. contest.
