Bethany takes down Chatham on Senior Night, 58-44

Andrew Woodley, Sports Information Director

• Box Score

BETHANY, W.Va. (Feb. 14) - The Bison used a strong second half to distance themselves from Chatham in a 58-44 win on Senior Night at the Hummel Field House in a Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) game Wednesday evening.

The win improves the Bethany College women's basketball team to 11-13 overall, 8-9 in league play, and firmly entrenches the squad into the No. 6 seed in the upcoming PAC Tournament. Meanwhile, the Cougars fall to 2-15 in the PAC, 4-20 overall this season.

Senior Kelsea Daugherty (Newport, Ohio/Frontier) registered her 13th double-double of the season with 24 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Bison to the win. Daugherty also added two assists, two blocks and two steals to her final line. Junior guard Ashley Duthie (Madison, Ohio/Madison) tossed in 12 points and grabbed seven boards, while freshman guard Janaya Hazlip (McKees Rocks, Pa./Sto-Rox) added nine points and four assists in the win.

After Bethany led 7-2 to open the contest, Chatham managed to tie the game with consecutive baskets to force a Bison timeout with 4:45 left in the first quarter. Freshman Allison Kuhn (Lewisville, Ohio/Monroe Central) gave Bethany the lead right back with a triple, but the Cougars continue to keep the game close and trailed 15-13 at the end of the first quarter.

Chatham took its first lead of the evening at 18-17 with 5:23 remaining in the second quarter and held the lead until the final minute of the first half. Hazlip gave the Bison the lead back at the free-throw line and a jump shot in the final 10 seconds of the quarter by guard Fallon Nicholson (Morgantown, W.Va./Morgantown) gave Bethany a 25-23 lead heading into halftime.

Chatham reclaimed the lead at 27-25 two minutes into the second half, but the Bison would go on to out-score the Cougars 10-to-4 from that point on to take a 35-31 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

The Bison finished the game strong, knocking down six of their 11 attempts and out-rebounding Chatham 13-to-4 to close out the game. The Cougars got as close as five, 44-39, with 4:24 left in the game, but back-to-back treys by Hazlip and Kuhn helped the Bison establish a 50-42 lead with less than three minutes left on the clock. Duthie helped Bethany clinch its 11th win of the season by making 7-of-8 from the charity stripe in the final two minutes, as Chatham scored just two points in the final three minutes of the game. 

Bethany limited Chatham to 28 percent shooting from the field (16-of-57) and out-rebounded the Cougars 43-to-32 in the win. 

Chatham was led by Katie Sieg who posted 20 points in the loss.

Prior to the game, the Bison honored both Daugherty and senior Kelsi Settle (Sebring, Ohio/McKinley) for their contributions to the program over the past four years.

The Bison will close out the regular-season on Saturday, Feburary 17 when they travel to Head Coach Brian Sansom's hometown for a 1 p.m. game at Grove City. Bethany has clinched a berth into the PAC Tournament and will host Geneva in a first-round game on Monday, February 19 (time is TBD).