MANKATO, Minn. – In front of a raucous crowd, the Bethany Lutheran men's basketball team put on a show on Saturday afternoon, defeating UW-Superior 77-58 for their second consecutive Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament Championship. The Vikings, who were led by Jax Madson with a game-high 27 points, will earn their second consecutive berth to the NCAA Tournament. Bethany also earned their 24th win of the season in the contest which sets a new program record. 



Each team posted four empty possessions to open the game before Dominik Bangu kicked off the scoring with a three pointer nearly three minutes in. Superior would score the next six before a three from Mason Ackley with 14:33 to go evened things at six.

The first half continued to be an offensive struggle for both teams with neither drawing really any momentum until late in the half. Leading 18-16 with 5:45 to go, Madson would connect on back-to-back threes before finishing inside on the next Bethany possession to put them up 26-16. The Vikings would keep their lead at 10 points until the waning moments of the half, with a Superior three in the final minute making the score 29-22 at the break.

Superior would come out of the break strong, chopping away at the lead and getting it to three points at 31-28 just four minutes into the frame.

Outside of his three early in the contest, Ackley made just two other baskets but he made sure to make them count. After Bethany had built their lead to six points, Ackley would come knifing down the lane and after receiving a perfect pass from Drew Sagedahl, would hammer home an and-one dunk and convert the free throw to put Bethany up nine. Following a defensive stop on the other end, Ackley would put an exclamation point on his night with a monstrous putback dunk that would make the standing room only crowd erupt as Bethany took their biggest lead of the game thus far at 11.

After Bethany would get the lead to as many as 14 a few minutes later, Superior would use a 7-0 run to cut the lead to seven points with 5:16 to play. That was when Madson put his stamp on the game and help all but put it away.

He would finish inside twice in a row before assisting Hunter Nielsen in transition for another basket. If that wasn't enough, Madson would then connect on dagger three with 3:32 to play to push the Vikings run to nine straight points and their lead to 16.

Leading by 17 with just under two minutes to play, Xavier Patterson would connect on a three before Madson would get a steal on the following possession and put a stamp on his UMAC Tournament MVP performance with a monster dunk to cap off the victory.

Madson earned the Tournament MVP award after a 27 point and eight rebound performance in the contest. Nielsen also capped off his tournament with another dominant night, posting 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting while adding 13 rebounds. Patterson added 11 for Bethany while Ackley added 10 rebounds to his eight points.

Once again Bethany got it done on the defensive end against the Yellowjackets as they held them to 19-of-67 shooting from the field, a clip of just 28.4 percent.

The Vikings will now await their opponent in the NCAA Tournament, which will be selected on Monday at noon.