Lady Cats Win Thriller at Cumberlands
WILLIAMSBURG, Ky. -The No. 3 Bethel Lady Wildcats traveled to Williamsburg, Kentucky to battle the No. 15 Cumberlands Lady Patriots Thursday evening. Bethel prevailed, winning 69-66.
The Cats led 19-15 late in the first quarter only to see the Pats score the last five points of the stanza to lead 20-19 at the break. Darcie Anderson hit a long jumper at the buzzer to give UC the one-point lead. Lakin Burke led the Patriots with seven. Hallie Turner and Mikee Buchanan led the Cats with five points each. Both squads shot 47 percent from the floor in the quarter.
UC outscored Bethel 21-16 in the second quarter and led 41-35 at the half. Bethel cooled off in the quarter to shoot 38 percent in the half. The Pats had a commanding 25-12 rebound margin but committed eight turnovers. The Cats hit six three-pointers and held UC to just two made three-pointers. Hallie Turner had 10 first half points. Micah Hart had seven tallies in the quarter and finished with 10 in the first twenty minutes. UC's Joy Kendrick led the Pats with 10 points. Burke followed with nine points.
Buchanan hit two straight three-pointers midway of the third quarter to give the Cats a 46-43 margin. UC scored seven straight however to regain the lead at 50-46. The Pats would lead 55-51 after three. Rebounding (37-18) and a 30-18 margin in points in the paint were two big factors to enable UC to lead.
The fourth frame was tight the entire time. Tied at 64 all with 4:35 left in the game, it remained just that until Micah Hart hit a turnaround jumper from 15 feet away to give Bethel a 66-64 lead. UC's Kendrick tied the game at the 41 second mark. Buchanan hit a free throw with 20 seconds left to give the Cats a 67-66 lead. After a UC miss, Bethel's M J Simmons hit two clutch free throws with four seconds left to hand the Cats the 69-66 victory. Simmons also had a team high ten rebounds.
Hart scored 17 of her team high 27 points in the second half. Buchanan finished with 14 points and Turner had 10.
UC finished with a 45-23 rebound advantage but had 19 turnovers. Bethel made nine three-pointers.
The Lady Pats fell to 17-4 overall and 2-3 in the league. It was the first home loss (12-1) for the Pats on the season. UC will host No. 2 Freed-Hardeman on Saturday.
The Lady Cats beat the Patriots 74-69 back on January 8 in Crisp Arena. Cumberlands leads the all-time series 9-4 but Bethel has won the last four meetings.
Coach Chris Nelson said, "We had talked playing the entire 40 minutes to our team about this game. We know any road game in the MSC brings its challenges, but we just wanted to stay steady. UC is 17-4 for a reason and has all the pieces. We finally got some key stops late in the game and had numerous players step up on both sides of the ball.
Bethel (20-2, 5-1) stays in the snowy Commonwealth, traveling to (RV) Georgetown for a noon CT tip-off Saturday.