James Anderson faced his former team in the Hutzell Athletic Center on Wednesday night as the No. 7 Bethel Pilots (18-5, 11-2) won over the (RV) University of Saint Francis Cougars (15-8, 8-5) 75-70 in a shootout.
The Pilots went into the night tied with the Grace Lancers at 10-2 in Crossroads League play with Saint Francis two games behind in third place. Anderson scored 17 points on 7-13 shooting at 3-3 at the charity stripe and a team-high eight rebounds to finish shy of a double-double on his former home court.
Trent Edwards led the Pilots in scoring with 21 on 9-16 shooting from the floor and 3-4 from the line and Luke McBride was the second-highest scorer with 20 points with a 6-14 performance from beyond the arc, 7-17 in overall shooting and seven boards.
Bethel held the Cougars to only four triples for the entire game (4-21, 19%) and took advantage, shooting 7-for-21 (33%).
The battle of the boards was won by the Pilots with 10 offensive boards, and Anderson grabbing four of the 10, and 25 defensive rebounds to USF’s 3 offensive and 21 defensive. Bethel also took advantage of 10 second-chance points and held the Cougars to none.
The Pilots fell behind in the first half with an eight-point deficit at 11:44 after a pair of Cougar free throws, then fell to an 13-point disadvantage at 8:27.
Luke McBride dropped a pair of threes at 5:55 and 4:15 to get within five points (28-23), then hit a layup at 1:46 left in the first half, bringing the game to a three-point difference (31-28). McBride would hit one final triple with 1:01 to go in the first before going into halftime down 33-31.
Bethel took no time to take the lead 36-35 at 18:08 in the second off a Trent Edwards three-point play that was erased by a dunk at 17:46 and a layup down the lane at 17:14 to make it a 39-36 game, USF.
The game tied three times in a matter of seconds, with Austin Cripe knocking down a triple at 12:56, an Anderson layup at 12:06, and another Anderson layup at 11:50, with the stretch ending with a 51-51 tie.
The back and forth affair continued with USF taking the one point lead at 5:16 from a pair at the line but the Pilots battled back and took a two-possession lead 67-63 by a three-point play by Anderson at 3:35.
Bethel would leave the Hutzell Athletic Center victorious 75-50 and remain tied with the Grace Lancers at 11-2 on conference play after the Lancers defeated the Taylor Trojans 90-84 in overtime in the Manahan OCC.
The Saint Francis Cougars are tied with the Huntington Foresters at 8-5 for third place in the conference standings but are in a battle for seeding and are out of the race for the Crossroads League Regular Season title unless either side were to win out and the Lancers or the Pilots would struggle down the final stretch of the Crossroads League season.
Bethel is now 7-4 on the road, but will return home to the Gates Gymnasium to face the Mount Vernon Nazarene Cougars on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 3 p.m. and have had a strong showing on their home court with a record of 9-1.
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