Dec 03, 2011
Junior Brady Pacific went 6-for-6 from three-point land on his way to a career-high 26 points and the Bethany College men's basketball team hit 12 triples in posting an impressive 82-51 victory over visiting Geneva Saturday in a PAC game.
The Bison now stand at 2-0 in the PAC for the third consecutive season and with a 6-0 overall mark, have matched the best start since the 1966-67 team also began with six straight wins. The Golden Tornadoes dropped to 1-6 and 0-1 in the league.
Although BC shot 45 percent (17-38) in the first half and Geneva shot 44 percent (11-25), turnovers and offensive rebounds helped lift the Green and White to a 39-26 halftime lead. Thirteen GT turnovers were converted into 16 Bethany points and the Bison scored 13 second-chance points with 11 offensive boards to take the commanding lead after the first period.
Bethany's shooters heated up in the second half to allow the home team to pull away. Up 11 with 15 minutes to play, Pacific drained consecutive treys to ignite a 9-0 sport which took the lead to 55-35. After a pair of Geneva hoops, Pacific buried three more three-pointers, which started a 23-5 blitz. In addition to Pacific, junior James Barton cashed in two trifectas and freshman Dylan Gravatt knocked in one as part of the run and Bethany was able to coast to the finish.
The Bison finished the second half making 9-of-12 from the arc and hit 12-of-21 from deep for the game. Pacific converted 10 of his 11 field goal attempts in the victory and his perfect 6-for-6 from the three-point line is the second-best performance in school history. The only player to make more treys in a game without a miss was Scott Mezyk, who was 8-for-8 in a victory over Washington & Jefferson Jan. 14, 2006.
Also reaching double digits in points was Barton, who dropped in 15 and sophomore Leslie Addy with 12. Other Bison to fill up the stat sheet included senior British Alexander, who had nine points, nine rebounds and two blocks, and junior Nick Wilcox, who contributed seven points and game-highs with 11 boards and six assists.
For Geneva, Matt Lorello, the PAC's leading scorer coming into the contest with better than 21 points per game, tallied 15.
Bethany will step out of conference for its next game when it hosts Carnegie Mellon Tuesday night at 7 p.m.