Bethany's late comeback falls short to Waynesburg

Waynesburg, Pa – The Bethany College women's basketball team's comeback fell short to Waynesburg, Wednesday evening, 69-61. The Bison were led by Ashley Duthie with 17 points and eight rebounds. The green and white are now 9-8, 4-4 while the Yellowjackets are 4-12, 2-6.

GAME OVERVIEW
1st -The Yellow Jackets struck first with a three, moments later Sammie Weiss put the Bison on the board with a layup. An Allison Kuhn three put the bison ahead 7-6. The Yellowjackets answered with a three of their own and a Weiss layup knotted the score at 9-9. The green and white and Yellowjackets exchanged buckets throughout the first stanza. Wanyesburg led 18-14 after one.

2nd- Waynesburg built the lead to 10 before Bethany cut the lead to eight with an Ashley Duthie jumper, 24-16. The Bison chipped continued to try and chip away at the lead getting an Amanda Reynolds three cutting the lead 30-19 with under 5 minutes to go in the half. A Weiss layup, brought the Bison within single digits, 30-21. Bison trailed at 35-25 at half.

3rd- Haylie Glass put the Bison on the board in the 3rd with a three, cutting the lead 42-28. Bethany trailed by as many as 20 points, getting outscored 16-6.

4th- Duthie's nine straight points to start the quarter, cut the lead to 51-40. The Bison went on a 15-4 run in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. Amanda Reynolds' foul shots put the Bison within seven 55-48. The Bison would get as close as six points, but the comeback fell short.

IN THE BOX SCORE
• Ashley Duthie led the Bison with 17 points and eight rebounds; 15 points coming in the fourth quarter
• Makayla Reynolds added 12 points and five rebounds
• Sammie Weiss contributed 10 points and seven rebounds
• Courtney Walker added eight, shooting 3-5 from the field and 2-3 from behind the arc
• The Bison outrebounded the Yellowjackets, 38-31
• Bethany was 12-16 from the charity stripe

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Brian Sansom:
"Came out of the gate flat tonight and we played that way for the next 30 minutes, we were settling for a lot of 3's early against their zone, I think we took 9 in the first quarter, we don't take that many in a whole game sometimes! Credit to Waynesburg, they beat us in all 3 facets of the game tonight plus I am not sure we got one loose ball but they sure did! Sam does a great job at Waynesburg and I told him before the game he has the best 3-12 team in the country, they proved me right tonight! Defense has been our strong point all season and why we have won 9 games but the last two games we have given up 71 and 69 points! We were scrambling on defense, we didn't know who we were guarding on a lot of possessions! We played our brand of basketball in the 4th quarter but down 20 points it was just a little too much! I think we cut it to 6pts and then we didn't get into help the next possession and they scored and we never recovered from the point on the rest of the game! We will look to learn a lesson from this game, coaches included and be better the next time out! #ONEBethany"

UP NEXT
Bethany travels to Beaver Falls, Pa for a PAC matchup vs Geneva on Saturday Jan. 19. Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m.