Lady Wildcats Advance in MSC Tournament with Win over Life
MCKENZIE. Tenn.– The Bethel Lady Wildcats advanced to the MSC Championship Quarterfinals with a hard-fought victory over the No. 12 seeded Life Eagles Monday night in Crisp Arena.
The fifth seeded Cats beat Life for the third time on the year. Bethel beat Life in both regular season matchups. The Cats won 62-36 in McKenzie and 67-47 in Marietta. Monday's game was much different however as the Eagles gave Bethel a game until the very end. Bethel advanced by winning 64-56.
The Wildcats trailed at halftime 29-27. Bethel struggled in the half shooting just 30 percent.
After going scoreless in the first half, Bethel's Keely Morrow hit three of four three-point attempts in the first six minutes of the third quarter which allowed Bethel to take as much as a five point lead in the quarter. Life didn't fold however narrowing their deficit to just one at 45-44 at the end of three.
The Cats outscore the visitors from Georgia 19-12 in the fourth to pull away and win.
Bethel shot 38 percent from the floor. Life shot 37 percent. Bethel hit eight three-pointers while the Eagles hit five. The Wildcats hit 14-of-17 free throw attempts. Life hit 12-of-20 from the charity stripe. Life had a 3-29 rebound advantage.
Millie Bryant led all scorers with 22 points. Morrow finished with 21. Kyla Taylor had a game high 12 rebounds off the bench. Bethel's all-time leading shot blocker, Mickey Head had five rejections in the game.
Tanit Calsapeu led Life with 17 points.
The Lady Cats moved to 19-12 while the Eagles finished their season at 6-25.
Bethel finished their home season at 14-4 and moved to 145-25 all-time in the friendly confines of Crisp.
The Wildcats advance to the quarterfinals to face No. 4 seed Georgetown Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Bowling Green Arena. The teams split their regular season games. Bethel fell in Georgetown 69-52 but won in McKenzie 73-59 later in the year.
Bethel's Millie Bryant enters the quarterfinals with 1,406 career points and 637 career rebounds. She is 8th in program history in scoring and 9th in career rebounds. Earlier this season she became just the 10th Lady Cat to score 1,000 points or more and collect 500 rebounds or more.
Bethel's Mickey Head enters the quarterfinals with 897 career rebounds and 283 career blocks. She has 1, 285 career points with 802 of those as a Lady Wildcat.
Trends & Numbers:
Bethel is 17-1 when they outshoot their opponents.
The Cats are 17-4 when they hit more three-pointers.
The Lady Cats are 15-0 when they outrebound their opponents.
Bethel is 14-1 when leading at the half.
The Cats are 11-8 when they have less turnovers.
Bethel is 9 -2 when they score 70 or more points in a game.
Coach Chis Nelson praised the opponent and his own squad. "Tonight, was your typical post season game. We must credit Life for coming in with a good game plan and playing with a tremendous amount of heart. They have nice young pieces and will be good in years to come. Our ladies had to battle all night and fought hard on both ends of the floor. Nothing has been easy all year and tonight stayed true to that. We battled some early foul trouble, but Millie was clutch as she has been all year. Mickey influenced the game on both ends of the floor. KT (Taylor) was great on the glass and Keely had timely buckets for us in the second half. Our team needed that type of win tonight as we advance further into the post season."
Live Radio: The Countdown to Tip-off Show begins at 7:30 p.m. on WEIO, 100.9 and at www.thefarmradio.com.
Dave McCulley and Austin Childress will call the action.
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Tickets:
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