By Jim Dabbelt

Bethel claimed victory in the Emmanuel Christian holiday tournament last weekend, picking up a pair of wins.

They opened the tournament with an easy 66-34 victory over East Dayton Christian in the first round. The Bees exploded out to a 15-6 lead after the opening period of play, and extended their advantage to 29-14 at the half.

A big third quarter put the game out of reach for EDC, as the Bees rolled out to a 50-22 lead heading to the fourth.

Bethel was led by Julian Brooks with a team high 18 points, while freshman Caleb South added 17 and Tyler Terry pitched in seven.

“Julian hit six three’s and shot the ball well,” Bethel coach Eric Glover said. “We got a chance to get a lot of kids in the game.”

In the finals, the Bees had no trouble with Emmanuel Christian, cruising to a 51-29 victory over the host team, to run their record to 7-1 on the season. In the finals, South with 11, Kurt Hamlin added 12.  

 “We played a lot better in the first half with good defense, and got up 29-8 at one point,” Glover said. “Our team is very young and we let them back into the game in the second half, but then we started to play better defense again and run our offense, and pushed the lead up to 20.”

“Our bigs played well,” he added, as Evan Hawthorne had 12 rebounds and Ian Anderson added 10.

Earlier in the week, Bethel defeated Edgewood 48-44, after recovering from a nine point deficit with 3:29 left. South led Bethel with 18 points in the win.

“We went into scramble defense,” Glover said. “We got key steals and got to the basket.” Bethel was down 44-41 with 1:20 left, and South got the steal and scored to but it to 44-43. Bethel got the ball back with 40 seconds left, and got the layup to get the lead, then hit free throws late to ice it.”

“With the new year, I can see these kids not quitting,” Glover said. “Once they get concept of team first, they will be a very good team down the road.”

“We are excited to play in the league, Twin Valley South will be good this Friday, and our guys are excited. We are also coming up on Miami East game and we will play them tough and hard.”

Bethel Girls Basketball- Bethel’s girls’ basketball team lost to Ansonia 51-32 on Saturday, to drop to 1-7 on the season.

“We are to the point where we can control some things, but we aren’t doing that yet,” Bethel coach Mark Mays said. “We are better with court sense, but now we have to control the variables.”

Paige Chaney led Bethel with 11 points, while Erin Floyd added nine.

Bethel heads to Troy Christian tomorrow night. 

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