Jan 26, 2013
The Bethany College men's basketball team held visiting Grove City to just 14 first-half points and forced 22 turnovers in the game, as the Bison improved to 8-3 in the PAC with an 82-47 victory Saturday afternoon.
The opening stages of the game were close, as the Wolverines (6-13, 3-8) scored the first three points and it was a 5-4 GCC lead with four minutes off the clock. Bethany took the lead with five straight points and the advantage was 19-10 following a free throw from Mitch Marmelstein with 7:42 left in the half.
Following that foul shot, the Bison outscored Grove City 22-4 for the rest of the half to build a 41-14 margin by the break. Senior Brady Pacific scored 13 for the Green and White in the opening period, but the real story was Bethany's defense. The Bison smothered the Wolverines into 12 first-half miscues, which led to 15 points, and held Grove City to just 20 percent (4-20) shooting in the second half.
Grove City made on attempt to get back into the game early in the second half when two straight threes from Josh Patterson and J.T. Schwartz had the deficit trimmed down to 20. A couple minutes later, another Patterson made it a 47-27 spread, but another Bison surge firmly secured the win. An 8-0 run was started by a putback from junior Tyrone Smothers and capped by consecutive triples by Pacific and junior Leslie Addy and Bethany would roll its fifth conference win this season by more than 20 points.
After a cold shooting stretch, the Bison are heating up again, as they sank 12 treys and made 47 percent of their attempts from the floor. Pacific finished with a game-high 16 points and was joined by three others in double digits. Smothers set a season-high with 12 points, while senior Nick Wilcox notched 11 and junior Kevin Jackson tallied 10. Pacific and Addy both grabbed seven rebounds to lead the effort on the glass and Addy also nabbed five steals.
The lone player to reach double figures for the Wolverines was Schwartz, who scored 10 points.
The Bison will look to extend their winning streak to three games Wednesday night when they host Westminster at 8 p.m.