Bethany's Season Ends with Loss to Thiel

Bethany, W.Va - The Bethany College women's basketball team hosted the Thiel Tomcats for a President's Athletic Conference (PAC) first round playoff match. The Bison fell to the Tomcats, 68-55. The Bison were led by sophomore Makayla Reynolds with 17 points and six boards. The green and white concluded their season 13-13 (8-8), while Thiel is now 7-19 (4-12).

GAME OVERVIEW

1st- Bethany struck first with an Ashley Duthie layup. Duthie and Makayla Reynolds went back to back with layups putting the Bison up 6-3. The Tomcats didn't back down, taking a 7-6 lead off of a Bison turnover. The Bison ended an 8-0 run with a Reynolds jumper, cutting the lead to three, making the score 11-8. Bethany quickly saw the lead rise again before cutting it to six from a Duthie jumper. The green and white trailed 18-10 at the end of the first stanza.

2nd- The Tomcats jumped out on a 6-0 run before a Haylie Glass layup. The Tomcats took a 14 point lead until the Bison chipped away, cutting the lead to 10 from a Courtney Walker three, 26-16. The Bison trailed 37-20 at halftime.

3rd- Bethany chipped away at the Tomcat lead throughout the third stanza. A jumper from Janaya Hazlip and Reynolds layup cut the lead to 15, 39-24. The Bison kept battling, chipping away at the lead. Free throws from Sammie Weiss cut the lead to 10, to end the third quarter.

4th- A Reynolds layup cut the Tomcat lead to single digits for the first time since the second quarter, 51-43. The Tomcats answered with a layup of their own, but Sammie Weiss laid one in to cut the lead back to eight, 53-45. The Bison couldn't get over the eight point hump and slowly saw their season coming to an end.

IN THE BOX SCORE
• Makayla Reynolds scored 17 points and pulled in six rebounds
• Sammie Weiss added 13 points and grabbed a team high nine boards for the Bison
• Ashley Duthie finished with nine points
• Janaya Hazlip had six boards and dished out three assists
• The Bison outrebounded Thiel 44-37, 20 coming from the offensive side
• Bethany shot 36.8% while Thiel shot 42.6%

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Brian Sansom:
"Obviously not the result we had hoped for tonight. I want to say THANK YOU to our players' families, campus community, my family and anyone else I may be forgetting for the unbelievable support we had tonight and all season! I thought Rob's young ladies played a really good game and kept making plays every time we tried to get ourselves into the game and credit them for making it really hard on us tonight. I hurt for our seniors, I wasn't ready for their careers to end tonight! It hurts I will never be able to coach them on the basketball court again! Ashley, Taylor and Sammie have meant so much to our college and program during their careers here and all I can say is THANK YOU to them! I am so VERY proud of the young women they've become! They truly helped shift our culture for the better! They're going be very successful in their life journey! I can't wait to see them change the world! The impact they've made on my life is something I will always be forever grateful for! I want to personally thank my assistant Schyler Fennimore as well, she does A LOT of work for this program on the floor but even more behind the scenes especially on the academic side that makes our program better! Thank you to the rest of our team for their commitment and effort this season, in the classroom and on the court. We have such a great group of young ladies, I am proud to be their coach and I look forward to seeing their growth on and off the floor! Family, Education, Basketball, #ONEBethany"