ST. BONIFACIOUS, Minn. - The Bethany Lutheran men's basketball team used timely three point shooting and a strong night on the glass against a bigger Crown College team to claim an 88-76 victory on Wednesday night. With the win the Vikings move to 4-10 overall and 1-2 in the UMAC while the Polars fall to 9-5 overall and 2-1 in conference play.
The Vikings were outmatched in size in this one from the start, and it was Tyrus Buckner of the Polars who gave them fits early as he scored six early points to give them a 7-0 lead five minutes into the contest.
After an 0-for-10 start from the field for the Vikings that also included two turnovers,
Drew Sagedahl would finally put Bethany on the board with 14:47 remaining with an and-one to get his scoring started on the night. The Vikings would connect on just two free throws over the next two minutes and trailed 11-5 with 12:45 to play before Sagedahl started to spark the offense. The senior would knock down threes on back-to-back possessions before
Jack Brockmann would step out to the corner and bury one of his own to make the score 16-14 with 11 minutes to play. Sagedhal would score again before
DJ Akpati would step into a triple as the Vikings claimed their first lead at 19-16 just over midway through the half.
Akpati would keep his hot hand going, as he would fire and hit three more triples over the next five minutes to help Bethany lead 34-28 with just over four minutes to go. The Polars continued to keep up offensively though, as they would answer with two triples in a row to re-knot the game up at 34. The Vikings however would end the half on a 10-6 run, with
Teon Thomas hitting a three with time expiring to send them into the break up four.
Bethany and Crown played fairly even in the first few minutes of the second half, as the Vikings would push their lead to 56-50 with just under 15 minutes to go in the contest. Over the next four minutes though, Bethany would embark on a 14-4 run with
Jax Madson scoring seven during the burst to help them to push their lead to 16 with 10:41 to go.
The Polars would try to fight their way back in over the next five minutes, but Bethany always seemed to have an answer to their scoring. They got the lead as low as 10 twice during before the eight minute mark, but timely scoring from Sagedahl and Madson pushed the Vikings lead to 17 with four minutes to go play. Crown would once again get the deficit to 10 late, but Bethany would hang on for the win.
Sagedahl had a big night with 26 points to go along with seven rebounds for the Vikings, including a perfect 9-of-9 night at the line. Madson and Akpati each had solid performances with 17 points, while Brockmann added 14 points and led all players with nine rebounds.
Bethany will next be in action on Saturday, as they'll host Northland for Alumni Day with the game beginning at 1 p.m.
