Bethel basketball teams drop conference showdowns with Oklahoma Wesleyan
They continue conference play on Thursday night against Ottawa.
On Monday night, both the Bethel men’s and women’s basketball teams faced off against Oklahoma Wesleyan. The women fell to the Eagles, 74-68, and the men fell, 63-54, to the seventh-ranked team in the nation (NAIA).
The Thresher women started out the game with a five-point lead, led by Jasmine Peete who had eight points early on. By the second quarter, Bethel had increased their lead to eight, but before halftime, OKWU had cut that down to only two with a minute left.
The Threshers went on a 6-1 run to hold a seven-point lead into the break.
Sophomore Carley Robb started out the second half hot, nailing a three to bring Bethel to its largest lead over the Eagles, leading them by ten. In the final ten minutes of regulation, OKWU would lead the contest by two and Bethel could never quite recover, eventually losing by six.
Jasmine Peete recorded her second-straight double-double with 23 points and 12 rebounds.
The Thresher men had a seesaw start to their game as neither team led by more than four points until there was only a minute left on the first-half clock. With 51 seconds left in the opening half, the Eagles knocked down a three to give them a five-point lead.
Bethel would later cut that to a three-point lead. Then as time expired, right before the buzzer, freshman Carmelo Yakubu hit a three to tie the game at 30.
“I felt pretty good about Carmelo’s three — obviously because we were able to get a stop and score on them to close the half which was a huge momentum boost,” Head Coach Jayson Artaz said. “I also felt like we guarded really well the first half and was pleased with our effort.”
Coming out hot after halftime was junior Harper Jonas, who gave the Threshers their first lead of the game with a three. Junior Nick Bonner and Yakubu then extended the lead to five points.
From there, it was all Eagles, as the road squad got an eight-point lead with 13 minutes left and never looked back, securing the nine-point victory.
“Overall, I thought we played pretty well,” Artaz said. “I think we played with good effort and defended really well. … We have to be able to consistently score the ball. We had a few stretches where we had opportunities to really make a run, but couldn't quite make the plays we needed to.
OKWU is a really good team and they’ll make you pay for any mistakes you make. They killed us on the boards and had some good cuts where we lost guys and you can't have those things happen and still beat the No. 7 team in the country.”
Bonner turned in his best game of the season with 17 points, five rebounds, two steals, and an assist. He’s currently averaging 15.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, three assists, and 2.7 steals per game.
“Nick has been probably our best player the last three games,” Artaz said. “He’s really begun to play well and play with energy more often. I’m happy with what he’s giving us now and really happy to see him have success because I know how badly he wants to help us win.”
The result drops Bethel to 4-4 overall and 2-2 in KCAC play.
“Overall, I’m more encouraged after that game than any game this year,” Artaz said. “I think this is the first time where we have played consistently hard and been dialed in to what we need to do to be successful this year. We have a lot of new guys and people playing in new roles so to see them step up has been good.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams will be back in action on Thursday in Ottawa with tip-off slated at 6 p.m. for the women and 8 p.m. for the men. The matchups can be streamed on the KCAC Network.