Lady Wildcats Meet Cumberlands Friday in Quarterfinals of MSC Tournament
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The No. 7 seeded Bethel Lady Wildcats meet No. 2 seeded Cumberlands (KY) Friday night at 5 p.m. CT in the quarterfinals of the Mid-South Conference Women's Tournament. The event is being held in the Studle Financial Arena on the Bowling Green High campus.
Bracket:
https://www.mid-southconference.org/sports/wbkb/2023-24/files/MSC_WBB_Tournament_2024.pdf
Campbellsville (Ky.) enters the tournament as the top seed after winning the regular-season title with a perfect 12-0 record. The MSC regular-season championship is the 17th in the program's history.
Cumberlands (Ky.) and Georgetown (Ky.) tied for second in the MSC standings with 8-4 records. Cumberlands is the tournament's No. 2 seed based on the fourth tiebreaker of point differential in games played between the two teams this season. The Patriots beat the Tigers 79-62 on Jan. 13, while Georgetown won the rematch 72-67.
With its championship, Campbellsville earns a bye into the MSC semifinals where the Tigers await the winner of No. 4-seed Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) and No. 5-seed Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.).
The Blue Raiders and the Lions open the tournament at 2:30 p.m. CT on Friday, March 1, in one of three quarterfinal games.
Georgetown plays No. 6-seed Cumberland (Tenn.) Friday at 7:30 p.m. CT.
The semifinals are slated for noon and 2:30 p.m. CT on Sunday with the championship game scheduled for 5 p.m. CT on Monday, March 4.
The tournament champion earns the Mid-South's automatic bid into the NAIA National Championship.
Cats vs. Pats
The Lady Wildcats and the No. 15 Lady Patriots met twice during the regular season.
The Lady Wildcats lost a heartbreaker in late January in Crisp Arena, falling 68-65 to the Lady Pats.
Bethel trailed 20-12 after the first quarter and 33-26 at the half. The Lady Wildcats entered the fourth stanza down 52-44.
Behind the scoring of Kylie Reynolds and Alyia Lee in the fourth, the Cats whittled away at the deficit and then with two free throws by Madison Hart with 59 seconds left in the game found themselves tied 65-65.
Cumberlands' Destiny Howorth nailed a three-pointer with eight seconds left to put the Pats up 68-65. Bethel's Lauren Bryant missed a three-pointer at the buzzer and UC survived moving to 15-5 overall and 3-1 in the MSC. Bethel dropped to 13-7 and 0-4. The rare home loss saw Bethel drop to 162-33 all-time in Crisp.
Reynolds (10) and Lee (5) teamed up for 15 of Bethel's 21 points in the final quarter. Reynolds led Bethel with 15 points, Lee followed with 14 while Hart had 11 points.
Kassie Monday led UC with 18 points. Victory Fredricks scored 10 for the Pats.
Cumberlands shot 43 percent from the field while Bethel finished at 39 percent from the floor. The Lady Cats connected on 7-of -18 three- point attempts. UC had six treys. The Lady Cats left some points on the court however, hitting just 20-of-31 fee throw attempts.
The Bethel Lady Wildcats finished the regular season with a road loss at the University of the Cumberlands Saturday. The Patriots won 81-69
The first quarter hurt the Cats. Bethel trailed 25-12 and could never make up the difference.
UC shot 50 percent from the floor and hit ten three three-pointers. Bethel shot 39 percent from the field and hit six three-pointers.
Madison Hart led Bethel with 21 points. Alyia Lee tossed in 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
Lakin Burke led UC with 19points. She was one of three Patriots in double figures.
It was Bethel's 12th straight loss. The Cats dropped to 13-15 and 0-12 in the Mid-South Conference.
No. 15 UC moved to 20-8 and 8-4.
Stats:
TBA
Watch:
https://team1sports.com/midsouth/
Tickets:
https://www.mid-southconference.org/hometown-ticketing