Andrew Woodley, Sports Information Director
BETHANY, W.Va. (Jan. 27) - The Bison out-scored Westminster 38 to 18 in the second half of their 63-43 victory over the Titans Saturday afternoon in a Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) game at the Hummel Field House.
The Bethany College women's basketball team improves to 9-10 overall, 6-6 in league play. Meanwhile, Westminster falls to 3-9 in the PAC, 7-12 overall this season.
Freshman Makayla Reynolds (Buckhannon, W.Va./Buckhannon-Upshur), the reigning PAC and Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Rookie of the Week, dropped a game-high 19 points and added seven rebounds to lead the Bison. She finished 5-of-11 from the field, including a perfect 3-for-3 from long distance. Senior Kelsea Daugherty (Newport, Ohio/Frontier) added 11 points and six boards in the win.
Neither team could distance itself from the other, as the largest lead for either team was three points through the first seven minutes. Bethany led 10-9 with 3:51 remaining in the first quarter, when it closed the period out with a 9-3 run to take a 19-12 advantage into the first intermission.
Westminster held Bethany scoreless for the first five minutes of the second quarter and managed to take the lead at 25-23 with 2:09 left in the first half. The Bison got a layup from senior forward Kelsi Settle (Sebring, Ohio/McKinley) and held the Titans without a point over the final two minutes to head into halftime tied at 25-25.
Bethany opened up the second half with a lead thanks to three pointers by freshman Allison Kuhn (Lewisville, Ohio/Madison Central) and Reynolds. The Bison were ahead 33-29 with just under five minutes left in the third quarter, before back-to-back treys by Reynolds helped Bethany open up a 39-29 lead and force a Westminster timeout with three minutes remaining in the period.
The Green & White entered the fourth quarter with a 44-31 lead and promptly extended the advantage. Bethany built a 19-point lead at 54-35 with 6:27 left in the game and never allowed Westminster to get within 17 points for the remainder of the evening.
Bethany finished the game 22 of 51 (43 percent) from the field, compared to the 14 of 47 (30 percent) shot by Westminster. The Bison held a 40 to 27 advantage on the glass and finished the day with 10 second-chance points.
Bethany is on the road on Wednesday, January 31 when they make the trip to Crestview Hills, Kentucky to take on national-power Thomas More at 5:30 p.m.
