It was a tale of two halves for the Bethel girls’ basketball team.

For the first 16 minutes, the Bees were doing everything right as they were leading at the half, and putting the stops to a talented Arcanum team.

But then came the second half, one that the Bees coach Mark Mays would rather forget.

The Bees were held scoreless in the third quarter, and watched as Arcanum fought back for a 34-18 victory last Thursday night in Cross County Conference action in Brandt.

“We thrive on our defense and we played well in the first half trying to keep them from scoring,” Mays said. “We knew they had someone going for her 1,000th point, and that made us want to play better defensively.”

“We did the job tonight on defense, we played well enough to win.”

Bethel scored quickly when Kayla Grable buried a three in the opening 30 seconds but Arcanum answered when Stevie Johnting and Alexis Abner, the two high scoring guards for Trojans, gave them a 4-3 lead. It was the last lead for Arcanum in the first half.

Bethel kept the pressure on, as Alaina Hawthorn scored four points and Grable added two free throws, giving the Bees a 9-4 lead with 3:22 left in the period.

The quarter ended 11-6, but what was going to happen in the second period was rough for the fans to watch. Only three points were scored in the period, including a layup from Hawthorn at the four minute mark, and the Bees held a 13-7 halftime lead.

Arcanum sued a 10-point run in 50 seconds to take over the game. McKenzie Sharritts buried two consecutive threes while Johnting had two quick steals and layups, and just that quickly, the Trojans led 18-13.

What’s worse for the Bees, they went from the four minute mark of the second period and all of the third with no scoring. They entered the fourth trailing 22-13.

Bethel’s offense did score five in the final period, but the game was out of hand. Morgan Crase finally broke the drought with two free throws with 5:14 to give the Bees their first points of the second half.

“We need to handle that pressure, and you have to be in situations like that to be able to know how to handle that,” Mays said. “We have to put the ball in the hole. Defensively we played well enough to win.”

Arcanum was led in scoring by Johnting with 12 and Abner added eight. Bethel was led by Grable with eight points and Hawthorn added six.

Bethel returns to action tomorrow night hosting Brookville on Senior Night, 7:00.

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