Men's Basketball | 2/17/2012 2:55:00 PM
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McPherson, Kan. – Fresh off their 85-83 overtime victory against Ottawa University, the McPherson men are one game away from becoming the first KCAC Regular Season Championship team since 1944-45. The final team standing in their way is Bethany College. The Swedes will come to the McPherson Sport Center, where the Bulldogs are undefeated this season, on Saturday, Feb. 18
th for Senior and Alumni night. The game is set for a 7 p.m. (CT) tipoff.
The game will be shown live on the KCAC Broadcast Network and at Macbulldogs.com. The contest will also be broadcasted live in the McPherson area on 96.7 FM KBBE MidKansas Radio and at Macbulldogs.com with Nick Gosnell and former Bulldog head coach Roger Trimmell on the call.
The exhilarating overtime game against Ottawa on Thursday night was one that most of these players will never forget. A “never-say-die” attitude by the Bulldogs and a well-timed substitution by Coach Swartzendruber gave McPherson a hard earned victory. Down by eight with three minutes remaining in regulation, MC fought back and had a chance to win the game. Though he missed that buzzer-beater,
Aaron Frazier (McPherson, Kan.) did not let it get to him as he got another chance in overtime and drained an elbow-jumper for the game winner. Coach Swartzendruber’s defensive substitution of
Adam Bruner (McPherson, Kan.) in overtime paid off when Bruner stole the inbounds pass with 2.4 seconds remaining.
The win for McPherson allows them to keep their one-game lead over Saint Mary who was also victorious Thursday. The Bulldogs are sitting at 15-2 in the conference and have a 26-3 record for the season. Ottawa drops to 7-10 in the KCAC, 10-17 overall, and is now tied for seventh with Bethany.
Aaron Frazier was the top scorer of the contest tying his career high 28 points on 50 percent shooting.
Samson Shivers (Houston, Texas) followed up his great night against KWU last Saturday with 18 points on Thursday.
Chris Crawford (McPherson, Kan.) had his third double-double of the year with 17 points and 14 rebounds.
McPherson went 40 percent from the field but was only able to convert on five of their 29 three-point attempts. The Bulldogs shot 57.1 percent from the free-throw stripe for their third lowest percentage of the season; it was also 10 percent lower than their yearly average.
Bethany just finished a Thursday night 66-64 game against the free-falling Builders of Southwestern College, winning 66-64. The Swedes were in a three-game slump before traveling to the usually hostile Stewart Field House in Winfield, Kan. They are sitting in a tie for seventh in the KCAC with Ottawa with a record of 7-10, 9-16 overall.
After the last regular season game for McPherson, they will play Thursday, Feb 23
rd in the McPherson Sport Center at 7 p.m. (CT). The opponent of that game is yet to be determined.
Scouting Bethany
Coming off a down to the wire game themselves, Bethany gets its first win in two weeks. The very streaky Swedes are having a difficult end of the season, not being able to string two victories together since their first games of 2012. This is a statistic that Bethany will be trying to resolve against McPherson on Saturday.
In their game against Southwestern, BC’s Haydon Parks made a couple of clutch free-throws to give Bethany a three point advantage with four seconds remaining. The Swedes fouled SWC to force the Builders to shoot two free-throws instead of giving them the chance to tie the game with a three-pointer. Southwestern’s Koury Clayton made his first and was forced to miss the second free-throw in hopes for an offensive rebound. Clayton’s hopes were not fulfilled as Bethany gained control of the rebound as time expired.
The Swedes were led by their top scorer of the season Trey Beachum who scored 16 points on 8-of-15 shooting. Haydon Parks and coming off the bench Ray Purtle, each had 14 points in Bethany’s triumph. Parks also recorded 12 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season which ties him for first in the KCAC in that category.
BC shot over 15 percent higher than their season average from the charity stripe. Bethany went 15-of-19 for a 78.9 percentage. The Swedes did not shoot as well from the field, only making 24 of their 65 shot attempts which put them six percent lower than their season average of 41.3 percent.
This season, Bethany is averaging 71.64 points per game and is giving up 73.6. They have the second-worst three-point offensive percentage in the KCAC at 30.6 percent. BC is doing much better on the glass, grabbing a conference third-best 12.72 offensive rebounds each contest. The Swedes are also averaging a KCAC low 16.6 fouls per game.
Beachum, the scoring leader of BC, is averaging 14.16 points per outing and also leads the team in made free-throws. Parks, the center for Bethany, is fourth in the KCAC in rebounds per game with 7.24 and also leads the Swedes in assists per game, averaging 2.4.
Bethany will end the season in seventh or eighth in the KCAC depending on how they and Ottawa do this weekend. Either way, they will be traveling next Thursday, Feb. 23
rd to the first or second seed in the conference.
