DE PERE, Wis. - The Bethany Lutheran men's basketball returned to action on Sunday night and faced a tall task as they took on No. 5 UW-Platteville at the Nicolet National Bank Holiday Tournament hosted by St. Norbert and fell by a score of 101-61. With the loss the Vikings fall to 2-8 on the season while the Pioneers move to 9-1.
Things got off to a slow start for both teams as the score was just 8-5 in favor of UWP over five and a half minutes into the contest. The Pioneers would then knock down a three pointer before
Kegan Heiderscheidt would respond with a triple to make it 11-8. Platteville would make a 9-2 run over the next four minutes but a
Julias Hendricks three would spell the run to make it 20-13.
After a few more minutes of back-and-forth action,
Drew Sagedahl and
DJ Akpati would each get tough finishes inside to trim the lead to 23-17 before another Heiderscheidt three made it 23-20. Two free throws would put UWP back up five before a Heiderscheidt and-one from long range made it 25-24. The Vikings would stick close for the next few minutes, but the Pioneers would end the half on a 20-8 run over the last 4:41 to lead 49-35 at the break.
Sagedahl would open up the second half with a layup inside, but a 9-0 run from UWP would push them ahead 60-39 with 16 minutes to play. The Pioneers would push their lead to 23 before Akpati would score seven straight Viking points to bring the deficit to 65-47. UWP would score the next 12 points to go up by 30 before a free throw from Bethany would end a near four minute scoreless drought to make it 77-48 with 10 minutes to go. The Pioneers would coast from there as the Vikings couldn't muster a comeback and fell 101-61.
Sagedahl led Bethany with 13 points in the contest while Akpati added 11 and a team-high six rebounds. Heiderscheidt and Hendricks each had solid games coming off the bench, as they scored 12 and 11 points, respectively.
The Vikings will be back in action tomorrow night when they take on the loser of the contest between Lake Forest and St. Norbert at 5 p.m.
