ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – Four of the Bethel University Royals men’s basketball team’s five conference victories have come by four points or less. Wednesday night’s 84-81 defeat of Carleton College was the latest of these close victories.
While Bethel’s offense is atop the MIAC in average points scored per game, many of these tight games can be attributed to Bethel’s struggle to defend its opponents. The Royals give up an average of 77.3 points per game, fifth most in the conference, and the most of any team with double-digit wins. Wednesday in particular saw the Royals give up 45 first-half points – 34 of them in the paint.
“We have to grow in our mentality when it comes to our toughness on the basketball [court],” Bethel head coach Zach Filzen said. “Using our chest, using our physicality.”
This challenge to Filzen’s players came at halftime with the Royals down 45-36. In the second half, Bethel gave up just 16 points in the paint, while adding 28 of its own.
As is their M.O., the Royals made up for their lack of size with sharp shooting from behind the arc. They landed 10 threes and shot an overall 57.9% from the floor.
This shooting did not translate to the free throw line, however. Bethel missed 11 from the stripe, including four while up by three in the last 32 seconds.
“We’ll be fine,” Filzen said. “We just gotta keep getting reps in, keep getting shots in. We’re good shooters.”
Carleton refused to take advantage of these opportunities. Bethel held its 84-81 lead after junior guard Adam Mattes missed two free throws with 32 seconds left to play. Knights’ freshman guard Matt Drake, who scored a team-high 21 points Wednesday, cruised with the ball inside the free throw line. Looking for a layup or a dish to the tying three, Drake instead seemingly fumbled the ball. Royals’ senior forward Caden Boettcher scooped it up and attempted to take it the distance, but was fouled.
Boettcher missed two of his own free throws with 14 seconds to play, giving Carleton yet another opportunity to force overtime. The Knights passed the ball around, looking for a shot, until one pass near the sideline was knocked out of bounds by a Royal. With 4.6 seconds left, Carleton called a timeout before inbounding the ball for its inevitably last possession.
The inbound pass flew across the width of the court to the right wing, where Knights’ freshman guard Josh Engelberg immediately attempted the tying shot.
Bethel junior Payton Thomsen promptly blocked Engelberg’s shot, and the ball fell harmlessly to the hardwood, and Boettcher picked it up to seal the game.
Thomsen led the game’s scoring with 24 points, 19 of them coming in the second half. Sophomore guard Nick Burke added 21.
The win keeps Bethel firmly in third place in the MIAC, behind undefeated St. John’s University, to whom the Royals lost Jan. 8, and undefeated Gustavus Adolphus College, who Bethel plays Saturday afternoon in St. Peter.
“I don’t think we’re playing up to our capability, yet,” Filzen said. “We’ll take wins in the process, and keep getting better.”
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Meanwhile, the Royals women’s basketball team continued its undefeated MIAC season with a 77-47 win against those same Carleton Knights. All but one of Bethel’s conference wins have come by more than 10 points.
The game started slow, as both teams took extra time getting in a rhythm. The scoreboard read 16-14 in favor of Bethel after the first quarter. Carleton held a 12-11 lead with 2:23 remaining in the quarter, but Anna Garfield, a fifth-year guard, made a free throw to tie it, and sophomore guard Macey Littlefield added two of her own from the line to take the lead. The Royals never gave it back.
A 22-10 second quarter gave the Royals all the momentum they needed heading into halftime, before the lead grew to as much as 32.
At 993 career points coming into Wednesday’s matchup, Garfield was quiet for the first half, adding just six points. Then, less than a minute into the third quarter, junior guard Colette Duininck stepped underneath the Royals’ basket to inbound the ball. As she scanned the play unfolding, she crouched forward, and a slight grin crept across her face but grew wider with each second as she intensely bit her lip.
Garfield was open. Duininck fired the pass over to her, and Garfield put up the 15-foot jump shot in the left short corner.
Swish.
Garfield scored her 1,000th and 1,001st points with that shot. Fans near the middle of the bleachers held up giant gold balloons in the shapes of a 1 and three 0s. One fan held up a poster board sign reading “Never fear, Garfy is here!” The less-than-capacity crowd roared for the fifth-year’s milestone.
Garfield finished the night with those eight points, just enough for her to fall asleep knowing it now took four digits, rather than three, to account for her career point total.
Senior forward Elly Schmitz led the Royals with 17 points and 13 rebounds, while sophomore forward Emily Erickson added 11 points.
Now 7-0 in the MIAC, Bethel faces No. 6-ranked and fellow unbeaten Gustavus Adolphus College Saturday afternoon in St. Peter.
