First Half Too Much For Bethany to Overcome

Bethany, W.Va. – The Bethany College Women's basketball team fell short of a comeback in a non-conference tilt, 69-54, against Allegheny College, Monday night, Dec. 10 inside Hummel Field House. The Bison were led by senior Ashley Duthie (Madison, Ohio/ Madison) with a season high 17 points, and pulling in seven rebounds. Bethany falls to 5-4 (2-1) and Allegheny moved to 5-5.

GAME OVERVIEW
The green and white started the game with a steal from Janaya Hazlip (McKees Rocks, Pa/ Sto-Rox) and a layup from Sammie Weiss (Taylorstown, Pa/ McGuffey). Moments later, the Bison got a trey from behind the arc from Haylie Glass (Mercer, Pa/ Mercer) leading the Gators 6-5. Bethany trailed 18-11 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter started out shaky for the Bison. The green and white started with seven turnovers in three minutes of play, allowing the Gators to extend their lead to 16. The Bison trailed by as many as 21 points going into halftime.

The Bison started the third quarter with a turnover and the Gators would go up 27, but came back and scored jumpers from Makayla Reynolds (Buckhannon, W.Va. / Buckhannon-Upshur) and Allison Kuhn (Lewisville, Ohio / Monroe Central) cutting the lead to 21. The Bison would go on a run to cut the lead to 14 to end the third quarter, 50-36.

In the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Bison started with a Duthie jumper in the paint but gave up back to back three pointers coming from the Gators. The Bison came back to cut the lead back down to 12 with a Kelsie Meintel (Moundsville, W.Va. /Cameron) steal and Duthie layup. The Bison saw the Gator lead down to single digits for the first time since the first quarter. Senior Duthie hit a pair of free throws cutting the lead to nine, but the Bison couldn't break that mark. The green and white comeback feel short allowing the Gators to capture their fifth win of the season.

IN THE BOX SCORE

• Senior Ashley Duthie scored a season high seventeen points on 11-12 shooting from the foul line and robbing the Gators of two steals and dishing out a team high three assists
• Sophomore Makayla Reynolds scored a season high 12 points and had a team high three steals for the Bison
• The Bison out rebounded the Gators 44-35. Duthie led the green and white with seven rebounds, while Weiss pulled in six
• Freshman Kelsie Meintel added eight points and five rebounds for the Bison
• The Bison scored 12 second chance points compared to the Gators seven

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Brian Sansom:
"We didn't play with much purpose tonight and that's on me! We have to learn to value the basketball much better, they scored 25pts off of our 25 turnovers. We were never able to get into the flow of our offense tonight until the 2nd half, we need to improve in that area! It was nice to see us battle back from 27pts down to cut it to 9pts but it was just too much to overcame! After the week Allison Kuhn has had she played her tail off for us tonight, I am so proud of her! We will continue to work fundamentally to become a better basketball team but we need to get our butts in the gym to work on the shots we're taking during games!"

UP NEXT
Bethany is off until Monday Dec. 17 where they will take on Penn. St Beaver in a non-conference matchup. Tipoff is set for 2pm.