By Bethany College Athletics
LINDSBORG, KAN. (bethanyswedes.com) – The Bethany College Men’s Basketball team hosted the McPherson Bulldogs for senior night. Bethany closed the regular season by hitting triple digits and running the Bulldogs out of Hahn Gymnasium, 100-72.
After a tough loss at Southwestern over the weekend Coach O’Dowd commented, “Our guys were really disappointed after the Southwestern game… Our guys took it to heart – didn’t make excuses and worked hard for our preparation the last couple of days and it paid off for us tonight.”
The Swedes jumped ahead 21-8 in the first seven minutes as Solomon Clayton scored ten points in the paint and Jah-Kez Moore rained a pair of 3’s from downtown.
Bethany showed incredible depth and used physical length as an advantage, shooting 54 percent (21 of 39) while holding Mcpherson 25 percent (10 of 39) to gain a 49-31 lead at half.
The Swedes continued on the trend and increased the lead to 34 points, 88-54, as the Swedes reserves kept the momentum going full force ahead.
Senior guard Justin Brookens led the Swedes offense with 19 points. Jah-Kez Moore, senior forward, finished with a double-double, 13 points and 10 boards. Malcolm Clayton, senior forward, also scored 13 points. Donovan Newton followed suit, scoring 11. Solomon Clayton scored 10 in the seven minutes he played prior to leaving the game due to injury.
Bethany finished the night with a shooting percentage of 56 (43 of 77) and outscored McPherson in the paint 46-12. The Swedes got 40 points from the bench, as all men who dressed played.
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The win improved the Swedes to 18-10 overall and 14-8 in the KCAC. This leaves Bethany in the 5th spot for the conference tournament and as a result, the Swedes will be traveling to Southwestern or Bethel next Wednesday for the first round of action.
