SWEDES INCREASE STREAK TO 8 IN ROW; BEAT PANTHERS

Lindsborg, Kan. – The Bethany College Swedes men's Basketball team kept the win-streak alive against a red-hot York University Wednesday night making it 8 in a row.

Bethany landed the first blow as Jah-Kez Moore hit a mid-range jumper to open the game on the first possession. York would answer back with a layup and would tie it a 4 apiece. The Panthers would take their first lead of the night hitting a three-pointer to take a 7-4 lead, but Moore would answer right back with a deep ball of his own to knot it up at 7. York would start to get it rolling outscoring Bethany 14-6 with a barrage of three-pointers over the next 4 minutes.

Over the next 9 minutes, the Swedes would constantly cut the Panther lead to a single possession game, but at the 5:09 mark of the first half, Maurice Cudjo II would hit a layup that tied it up 35-35. Following a missed York jumper, Dylan Smith would give Bethany a 37-35 lead with a fast break layup leading to a Panther timeout.

York would come out of that timeout scoring twice in a row to regain the lead, but Cudjo would knot it back up at 39. Solomon Clayton would hit a jumper with 2 minutes left to play in the first half to give the Swedes a 41-39 lead, but that would last long as 30 seconds later, the Panthers would tie it up. Both teams would score 2 points before the end of the half leaving the score 43-43 going into halftime.

York would come out to start the second half hot as they would outscore Bethany 11-2 in the first 3 minutes of play to take their largest lead of the night 54-45. Following a timeout, the Swedes would come out scorching the Panthers on an 11-0 run led by Justin Brookens.

After some back-and-forth, Bethany would begin to lay it on York. Donovan Newton would start it off with a pull-up three ball to take a 59-58 lead. Brookens would add on with a layup and three-pointer forcing York to call a timeout. Solomon Clayton would make it 10 straight points with a made jumper. The Panthers would make a layup, but it wouldn't slow the Swedes down at all as Bethany would score another 8 consecutive points to make it 74-60 with 6 minutes left to play and forcing York to call yet another timeout to try and cool off the Swedes.

The Panthers would get a put back dunk, but Josh Smith would follow with a deep ball to give the Swedes their largest lead of the night at 15 points. From there, Bethany would hang on and close it out 87-75 to bump their current win streak up to 8 games.

5 Swedes would score in double figures as Justin Brookens would lead the way with 20 points followed by Solomon Clayton (13), Josh Smith (13), Dylan Smith (12), & Jah-kez Moore (11). S. Clayton would lead Bethany in rebounds with 12 (6 offensive, 6 defensive). Brookens would record a team-high 4 assists. On the defensive side, S. Clayton would tally 4 blocks while D. Smith would record 3 steals.

As a team, Bethany would match their season-high in blocks with 8. The Swedes would shoot more efficiently in all phases of the contest as well as outrebounding the Panthers 46-33. Bethany would get plenty of help from the bench who combined for 23 points compared to York's 8.

Up Next…

The Swedes have their final regular season away game this weekend when they take the road to Southwestern College. Tipoff is scheduled for 5pm February 11^th at the Stewart Field House in Winfield, Kansas.

~#RockarStockar~