First quarter struggles haunt Bethel women against Friends
Locke continues hot streak with third 20-point game in a row.
WICHITA — The Bethel women’s basketball team dropped a game to Friends on Saturday by a score of 77-67 that saw the Threshers score only nine points in the opening quarter.
“We have to figure out how to come out of the locker room ready to go,” said interim head coach Rocky Lamar. “We have to learn that it is not a feeling out process at the beginning of the game. We need to be aggressive from the beginning, especially on the glass.”
Aside from the first quarter, the Threshers kept it close, both teams scoring 58 points each in the remaining three quarters. Despite this, Bethel struggled on the boards throughout the whole game, losing the rebounding battle 58-30.
The Threshers saw spread-out scoring from their team, with only two girls scoring in double-digits: freshmen Kendall Locke and Madyson McKinzie, with 21 and 13 respectively. Locke, with her third 20-point game in a row, is leading the Threshers in scoring this year, averaging 14.2 points per game in her freshman campaign.
Other stat leaders included Caryn Yoder and Taylor Hight with four rebounds each, Locke with six assists, Josie Stupey leading with five steals, and Hight adding two blocks for the Thresher’s defense.
Bethel has lost their last two conference games, but they are still optimistic for the rest of the season and are looking to make the KCAC postseason tournament, a feat that they were unable to do last year. The Threshers are sitting at eighth place in the KCAC standings, and would currently be the last team to make the tournament.
“We are going to do everything that is needed to get to the conference tournament and then I believe anything is possible,” said Lamar on the Threshers tournament hopes.
The Threshers, keeping this thought in mind as they move forward, will take on Kansas Wesleyan, who currently sits at sixth in the conference standings, in Thresher Gym on Wednesday at 6 p.m.