In a game against Mesabi Range College #30 Luke Fehrenbacher takes the shot.
Photo by Holden Law
Bethel shot 50 percent after halftime to pull away for a 64-51 victory over the UW-Superior men’s basketball team at Mertz Mortorelli Gymnasium on Saturday.
After a tight first half that saw the lead change hands 14 times, the Royals connected on 14-of-28 attempts in the second half and converted nine UWS turnovers into 14 points to improve to 4-3 on the season.
The Yellowjackets received a game-high-tying 15 points from junior Eli Vogel (Appleton, Wis./Appleton West) on 6-for-12 shooting while classmate Mason Ackley (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) added 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals for Superior, which shot 38.5 percent from the floor.
Neither team held a lead larger than three points in the first half as it went back and forth the entire way.
The game was tied six times in the opening 20 minutes with the last tie of the half coming with 2:40 remaining when sophomore J’Vaun Walker (Rosharon, Texas/Manvel) hit a jumper making it 27-27.
Bethel went into halftime up, 32-29, on a layup by Zach Doely with 17 seconds left.
Vogel knotted the game again at 32-32 a minute and a half into the second half with one of his three 3-pointers on the day and the ‘Jackets later led 37-36 on a Walker jumper in the paint with 15:47 to play before Bethel engineered an 8-0 run to take a seven-point, 44-37 advantage.
Tommy Jensen knocked down a jumper in transition, assisted by Joey Kidder to close the stretch with 12:46 left.
An Ackley hoop with 8:23 remaining cut the deficit to five at 48-43, but Bethel rallied, scoring the next six points, to open its largest lead of the day at 56-43 with just over five minutes on the clock, and Superior could not find a response.
Jaren Tschetter led a group of four BU starters in double figures with 15 points. Doely (14 points), Jensen (11) and Sam Nelson (10) were the other Royals to score in double digits. Tschetter also grabbed a game-best nine rebounds as Bethel outrebounded UWS, 38-27.
