Women's Basketball: Scoring balance and defense spark Bison in home victory over Tomcats

BETHANY, W.Va. – Bethany College women's basketball team used explosive defense and balanced offense to cruise to an 81-38 win over Thiel College inside Hummel Field House Wednesday evening.

GAME FLOW

• The Bison offense started off slow to begin the game. Thiel took an early 6-4 lead until Ashleigh Wheeler made an old-fashioned three-point play to give the Bison the lead, 7-6 with under 4:30 to go. Amelia Ferguson made a layup on the Bison's next possession to extend the lead. The Green and White lead swelled to double-digits as Alexis Heap scored with under a minute to go. Bethany led 19-9 at the end of the first stanza.
• In the second quarter, the Bison offense slowly started to heat up while maintaining a double-digit lead. The Bison led 34-17 heading into the halftime break.
• Using their explosive defense the Bison held the Tomcats to just nine points in the third quarter while scoring 31 points. Ashleigh Wheeler and Makenzee Mason accounted for 19 of the Bison's 31 third quarter points.
• After three quarters, the Bison led 65-26.
• In the final stanza, the Bison offense quieted down, but outscored the Tomcats 16-12.

IN THE BOX SCORE

• The Bison had 11 different scorers with four in double-digits.
• Ashleigh Wheeler led the Bison with 20 points. She pulled in four rebounds with three assists and four steals.
• Makenzee Mason added 11 points with a team-high nine rebounds. She had four assists and one steal and one block.
• Bella Skobel contributed 11 points and had four steals.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Bethany shot 40.3% (29-72) from the field while Thiel shot 25.9% (14-54).
• The Bison had 24 steals and 17 assists.
• The Green and White scored 36 points off turnovers and had 13 second chance points.

RECORDS

Bethany College – 6-13 (6-8 PAC)

Thiel College – 2-14 (1-11 PAC)

UP NEXT

Bethany will host the Chatham University Cougars on Saturday, Jan. 28 for a 1 pm tip-off.