Men's Basketball | 2/23/2012 10:46:00 PM
Box Score
Box Score
McPherson, Kan. – For the second time in six days, the McPherson College Bulldogs defeated the Swedes of Bethany College, winning tonight by a score of 76-68. Samson Shivers and Aaron Frazier’s 17 points gave the ‘Dogs just enough to pull out a close one in the McPherson Sport Center.
The Bulldogs’ traditional quick start did not happen tonight as they were stuck on four points for the first seven minutes of the game. Both the Swedes and McPherson couldn’t make any shots with neither team breaking into double digits until BC did five minutes into the opening period (10-4). Bethany kept the lead through halftime, heading into the locker room up 36-32.
MC trailed the Swedes until the 12:30 mark when they took their first lead of the game on a D’onte Woods layup. Try as they might, the Bulldogs could not stretch the lead to double figures with their largest lead of the night (8) coming with under one minute to play. McPherson was able to hit there free-throws in the closing seconds, going 10-of-12 in the final two minutes to preserve the 76-68 triumph. Last week, MC finished the regular season undefeated at home and tonight they carried the streak into post-season.
The victory over Bethany allows the Bulldogs to advance to the second round of the KCAC Tournament where they will face the Blue Jays of Tabor College this Saturday, Feb 25 at 7 p.m. in the McPherson Sport Center. MC is now 28-3 overall this year and 17-2 against conference opponents. BC’s season has come to a close with a record of 9-18 on the season, 7-12 when playing KCAC foes.
Shivers and Frazier may have each had 17 points but they did it in different ways. Shivers had all of his field goals in the first half, going 5-of-11, and was only 1-of-6 from behind the arc. In the second, he made six of his seven free-throw attempts for the remainder of his total points. Frazier scored the majority of his points in the second period, ending the night 5-of-12 from the field and shot 100 percent from the charity stripe (7-of-7). Chris Crawford added to the double digit scoring with 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting.
MC struggled from beyond the arc (1-of-16) but made up for it with a tremendous free-throw percentage. They shot 86.2 percent from the line on 25-of-29 shooting and hit all but two in the second half, going 22-of-24. McPherson ended the night shooting 42.4 percent thanks to making over 50% of their shots in the second period (11-of-21).
The Swedes had four players in double-digit scoring; Haydon Parks (17), Clayton Goggins (15), Ray Purtle (13) and Chris Dean (12). Dean also gobbled up 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the year.
BC was all over the glass and had a 47-32 rebounding advantage over McPherson, 19 of Bethany’s boards were on the offensive side. Much like the Bulldogs, Bethany struggled from the three-point line, only making two of their 10 attempts. Their 80 percent free-throw average (8-of-10) in the first half was cut down to 69.9% for the game thanks to shooting 10-of-16 in the second.
McPherson will be back at the Sport Center this Friday night, Feb. 25 to face Tabor College in the second round of the KCAC tournament. The game is set to tipoff at 7 p.m. (CT)
