Weiss and Duthie propel Bison past Grove City

Bethany W. Va - Bethany College women's basketball held on and defeated Grove City, 59-57, Saturday afternoon inside Hummel Field House. The Bison were led by senior Sammie Weiss with a season high 21 points and Ashley Duthie 17 points. With the win, the green and white are now 11-8, (6-4) while the Wolverines fall to 11-9, (6-5).

GAME OVERVIEW
1st- Bethany got on the board first with an offensive put back from Makayla Reynolds. Grove City answered with a layup of their own. The Bison and Wolverines exchanged buckets before the green and white pulled away with a commanding lead. Back to back layups from Reynolds and Sammie Weiss put the Bison ahead 8-5. The Bison pulled ahead on an 8-2 run to finish the quarter.

2nd- A Janaya Hazlip layup put the Bison ahead 14, 21-7. The Wolverines attempted to cut the lead but the Bison answered with shots from behind the arc from Hazlip and Allison Kuhn, 29-13. Grove City went on a 12-2 run to cut the lead to four going into halftime.

3rd- Grove City continued momentum into the second half, knotting the game at 33-33. A Weiss layup put the Bison back in the lead, 35-33. Bethany led by as many as six throughout the third stanza. Both teams went neck and neck answering each other's shot. The Bison led by eight going into the fourth quarter, 53-45.

4th- Weiss' foul shots put the Bison on the board first in the fourth, extending the Bison lead to 55-45. Grove City continued to cut the Bethany lead in the fourth, cutting the lead to two, but the Bison defense was too much to handle.

IN THE BOX SCORE
• Sammie Weiss led the Bison with 21 points, shooting 7-10 from the field, and 7-10 from the charity stripe
• Ashley Duthie contributed 17 points, shooting 6-13 from the field and 4-6 from the foul line
• Makayla Reynolds added eight points
• Allison Kuhn dished out four assists
• The Bison outrebounded the Wolverines, 45-23. Duthie led the green and white with nine and Weiss pulled in eight
• Bethany shot a hot, 50% from the field (22-44), while Grove City shot 37.1% (23-62)
• Coach Sansom, a native of Grove City, picked up his first victory over his hometown College since coming to Bethany.

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Brian Sansom:

"Wow, what a game, what a win today. Just proud of our team and the way we first approached this game and then the way they went about their business on the floor! This win started back on Monday when we started the week with a good practice! Our practice last night was sharp and efficient! It showed today especially when we needed to make plays! We jumped out to a big lead but I knew Grove City would battle back and start making some shots! We did a really good job of withstanding their run to keep a 4 point lead at halftime! I thought that was big because we were still in control of our own destiny! We played a really good 3rd quarter making some big shots and getting stops on defense! The 4th quarter might have been my favorite 10 minutes of basketball with this group! We struggled some on offense but we just kept getting stop after strop after stop, including one on a possible game winning shot with under 10 seconds to go! We really did outstanding on the boards, we were +22 today against the 2nd best rebounding team in the conference! That was HUGE for us to not let them get a bunch of 2nd shots! Seniors Sammie Weiss and Ashley Duthie was absolutely special for us today! I am so happy for them and when they go we go as a team! This was a TEAM win, we talk a lot how we have to do this together, all 17 of us, we stuck together today, had a lot of energy and I thought again our bench played a big role in this win! We will surely enjoy this one for a day but then we need to shift our focus to Thiel! #ONEBethany"

UP NEXT
Bethany travels to Greenville, Pa for a PAC matchup at Thiel. Tipoff is set for 5:30 pm.