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Cats use Balance Scoring to Win in Omaha -Photo courtesy of Sydney Schneider Photography
Cats use Balance Scoring to Win in Omaha -Photo courtesy of Sydney Schneider Photography

Lady Cats Pick up Huge Win in Opening Round in Omaha

OMAHA, Neb. – The (RV) Bethel Lady Wildcats won their opening round game in the 41st Annual Women's Basketball National Championship in Omaha Friday afternoon beating No. 18th ranked St. Xavier 79-69.

The Creighton University Arena crowd saw the Cats trail 20-19 at the end of the first quarter. The Wildcats outscored the Saints 17-3 to open the second stanza and took a 36-23 lead. St. Xavier answered with an 11-3 run to close out the quarter and Bethel's lead was 39-34 at the break. Bethel shot 43 percent from the floor in the half. The Cats hit 7-of-15 three-point attempts. Millie Bryant and Mickey Head scored 11 points each. Jenna Foust had 10 points at the break.

Bethel outscored St. Xavier 25-20 in the third and led 64-54 entering the fourth quarter.

The Cats extended their lead to 14 at one point of the final quarter. St. Xavier made a run but balanced scoring by the Cats proved to be enough for the 12th seed to survive and advance. 

Bethel moved to 20-13 while the Saints finished their season at 25-7.  

The 70 points are the most scored in a game since Bethel beat Shawnee State 80-52 in mid-January.  

The Dakota Wesleyan Tigers beat Saint Francis (Ind.) 69-58 to advance and will be Bethel's opponent Friday at 4:30 p.m. The winner of the game will advance to the Sweet 16 in Sioux City, Iowa, at the NAIA National Championship final site presented by Bomgaars. The championship takes place at the Tyson Events Center from March 17-22.

The Tigers are 27-7 on the year.  They finished tied for third during the regular season in the Great Plains Athletic Conference.  The Tigers are a four seed in the championships.

Bryant led Bethel with 19 points. Head and Keely Morrow followed with 18 each. Foust ended the day with 17 tallies. Claire Austin led the Saints with 19 points.

Bethel shot 46 percent from the floor. Saint Xavier shot 42 percent from the field. The Cats hit 12-of-26 three-point attempts. The Saints struggled hitting just four of 19 attempts from deep. The Wildcats were 15-of-21 from the free throw line. Saint Xavier was 23-of-31 from the line. Bethel did lose the battle of the boards at 34-28. Each team had their share of turnovers as Bethel committed 16 while the Saints had 20 mistakes on the day.  

Bryant now has 1,321 career points and 644 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.

Head finished the game with 909 career rebounds and 291 career blocks. She has 1, 311 career points with 828 of those as a Lady Wildcat. Head is the all-time program leader in blocks.

The Lady Wildcats have made 259 three-pointers on the season. They program record is 302 in 2014-15.

Wildcat Trends & Numbers:

Bethel is 18-2 when they outshoot their opponents.

The Cats are 18-5 when they hit more three-pointers.

The Lady Cats are 15-0 when they outrebound their opponents.

Bethel is 15-1 when leading at the half.

The Cats are 12-9 when they have less turnovers.

Bethel is 10 -2 when they score 70 or more points in a game.

Bethel's Chris Nelson is in his 16th year as head coach of the Wildcats. He has a record of 349-168 at the school. He is 15th in wins among active coaches in the NAIA. 

His teams have hit at least one three-pointer in each of his 517 games. He has led the program to fourteen national tournament appearances which include two Elite Eights and three Sweet Sixteen appearances. His squad qualified for the 2020 national tourney which was not held due to Covid19. 

Coach Nelson shared his thoughts on the big win. "Today was a total team effort. It always feels good to get the first win at the national tournament. We have had a very balanced attack all season and today it really showed. St Xavier was a great opponent and did a nice job of getting after us defensively. For the most part I thought our ladies handled it well and made some clutch plays when we needed them most.  We will rest up and be ready for another good opponent in Dakota Wesleyan."

 Bethel/ Dakota Wesleyan Links: 

Live Video:

https://striv.tv/naia-omaha/

Live Stats:

https://naiastats.prestosports.com/sports/wbkb/2021-22/boxscores/20220312_khni.xml

Ticket Link

Tickets can be purchased at Ticketmaster by going to: https://am.ticketmaster.com/creighton/buy?filterType=3

Photos

@sydneyschneidersports