West Palm Beach, Fla. – The Bethel College Pilots men’s basketball got back on track with a win in the Marietta Rappaport Holiday Classic by routing Johnson & Wales (Fla.) on Tuesday afternoon.
GAME VITALS
- Score:Â Â Bethel def. Johnson & Wales (Fla.) 92-68
- Records:Â Â Bethel (11-2) | Johnson & Wales (Fla.) (2-11)
- NAIA Top 25 Coaches’ Poll: Bethel – No. 14 | Johnson & Wales (Fla.) – not rated
- Location:Â Countess de Hoernle Student Life Center | Keiser University | West Palm Beach, Fla.
STAT TRACKER
- Gage Ott: 16 pts, 4 reb
- Ryan Lutz: 12 pts, 4-7 3fg
- Kyle Hartman: 2 pts, 9 ast, 6 reb
- Trey’von Covington: 12 pts, 6 reb
- Trey Burns: 10 pts, 4 reb, 3-3 3fg
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- The Pilots finished with five players in double figures, and 13Â of 14Â players scored at least a point.
- Gage Ott finished with 16 points, moving into a tie for 39th-place on the career scoring list with Dick Armington at 1,279 points. Ott also finished with 4 rebounds and sits at 498 for his career, with a chance to become the 38th player in program history with at least 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in his career.
- The Pilots outrebounded the Wildcats 50-29 on the afternoon, adding to their NAIA DII No. 2-ranked rebounding margin of +12.9.
- The Pilots have not lost back-to-back games since February 13-16, 2016, a span of 53 games. The Pilots were coming off a 106-96 defeat to Goshen on December 6 in their previous game.
- Ryan Lutz is now shooting 50.0% (22-44) from the three-point line this year, following today’s 4-7 performance.
- Kyle Hartman now has 93 assists thru the first 13 games on his Pilot career, the most by any player in program history to start his career. Ryne Lightfoot previously held the record with 84 in 2006-07.
COACH LIGHTFOOT SAYS
- “A good team win for our group. It felt like a long time to get back on the floor after a loss over a week ago. I’m proud of our guys’ effort on the defensive side of the floor and rebounding the basketball. We had a lot of people step up and give quality minutes. It wasn’t perfect for 40 minutes but we are getting closer to building consistency in our game execution.”
NEXT TIME OUT
- The Pilots continue with the Marietta Rappaport Holiday Classic hosted by Keiser University in West Palm Beach, Florida tomorrow at 3pm against the hosts, Keiser (Fla).