Hunter Nielsen tipped in a Mason Ackley floater just before the clock struck zero on Wednesday night to give the Bethany Lutheran men's basketball team an exhilarating 68-67 win over UW-La Crosse. With the win the Vikings improve to 4-2 on the year while the Eagles fall to 3-3.

"Extremely proud of these guys," said Head Coach Pat Garvin. "Had multiple guys step up and make big plays down the stretch. They threw some haymakers and we never flinched. That's one of the grittiest, toughest wins we've had here."

The first portion of the game played at a much slower pace than the final few minutes, as the teams locked in on defense in the first half. With UW-La Crosse leading 18-17 near the midway point of the first half, the Vikings buckled in defensively the final nine minutes, holding the Eagles to 3-of-20 shooting in that span to go on a 16-6 run and hold a 33-24 lead at the break.

The Vikings would open the second half similar to how they finished the first, scoring seven of the first nine points to hold a 14-point lead just over two minutes in. UWL would then get hot, scoring on 8-of-10 possessions to cut the deficit to 43-40. They would eventually even things up at 49 apiece before taking the lead at 53-51. The Eagles would push that lead to six points and still hold onto that six-point lead with 1:43 to play.

Xavier Patterson would then connect on an and-one that would cut the lead to three points before the Vikings would force a turnover and gain possession with a chance to tie. They wouldn't manage the tie, but with time winding down on the shot clock Patterson would give up his dribble at the elbow before turning and hitting a fall away to trim the lead to one with a minute to go. UWL would connect on two free throws on the ensuing possession due to a Bethany foul before Patterson would step to the line and hit a pair himself to bring the margin back to one point with 45 seconds to play.

La-Crosse would pound it inside on their next possession and Nielsen would go up with a strong contest but was called for a foul. The Eagles would miss both free throws though, as Nielsen corralled the board and the Vikings came the other way. Bethany would attempt a few dribble drives but be grounded by the Eagles so they took a timeout with just under six seconds to go.

Ackley would inbound for the Vikings out of the timeout and would get it into Patterson. Patterson then flipped it back to Ackley who was able to get downhill with his right hand and float one towards the hoop. The ball sailed just over the top of the rim where Nielsen waiting on the backside for a tip-in to give the Vikings the win.

It was an all-around effort from the Vikings, who got a massive 19 points, 15 rebounds, and three blocks from Nielsen. Patterson finished his day with 13 points while Ackley had 11, with both players also record four rebounds and four assists. Dominik Bangu and Kegan Heiderscheidt rounded out the Bethany scorers in double figures with 10 points apiece with Heiderscheidt adding eight rebounds.

Bethany now has over a week off, as their next contest will be their UMAC opener in which they host North Central on Friday, December 8^th at 7:45 p.m.