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Mon, Mar 1, 2010
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Men's Basketball
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By Laura Christopher
Lindsborg News-Record
The Bethany College men's basketball team, the number three seed in the KCAC post-season tournament, hosted sixth-seeded Sterling College Thursday night.
Bethany jumped out to an early lead, but Sterling kept the game close later in the first half as the Swedes walked into halftime with a one-point lead. Bethany struggled early in the second half, and lost their lead before making a late run. Key three-pointers and drives to the lane drawing fouls secured the win down the stretch for the Swedes as they topped Sterling 85-70.
Senior Rodd Williams scored a game-high 29 points on the night. Sophomore Clayton Goggins added 14 points as seniors C.J. Littlejohn had 13 and Jason Schneider added 10. Miller crashed the boards with eight rebounds as Littlejohn totaled five. Littlejohn tallied five assists in the contest as junior Vince Ferguson snuck three steals.
The Swedes then hosted a semi-final match-up with seventh-seeded University of St. Mary Saturday night.
Bethany had a strong second half against the Spires, and walked into halftime with an 11-point lead. USM closed the gap in the second half, but the Swedes held on down the stretch for an 83-68 win, sending them to the KCAC conference championship.
"The two games were pretty similar," said head coach Clair Oleen. "They ran pretty parallel in terms of the way they went. We got off to better starts in both games. Fatigue was a factor; we eventually wore both teams down, and closed out with big runs both nights. When you have full court pressure for 40 minutes, you wear our opponent down."
Goggins had a team-high 18 points on the night, followed by Williams with 15. Schneider had 14 points while Littlejohn had 13 and Ferguson and freshman Jack Sadowy each had ten points. Sadowy grabbed five rebounds while Miller had four. Goggins had five assists while Littlejohn and Williams each had two. Goggins, Miller, and freshman Xavier Reynolds all had one steal in the contest.
"Both teams were pretty similar," Oleen said. "Both teams had to be able to shoot very well from the three-point line in order to win. They rely on that, and our defense was geared towards that. In the second half versus St. Mary, we really took away their three-point shooting. A big thing in the game against USM was guys came in and stepped up. Both Rodd and CJ were in foul trouble, and Manny (Honeycutt) and Jack (Sadowy) stepped up and did a good job. But we didn't do well on the boards against USM; we certainly need to do better than that."
The Swedes, now 18-12 overall, faced number one seeded Friends University in Wichita Tuesday night in the KCAC Championship game.
