Yankton, SD – The Bethany College Men’s Basketball team took the road to Yankton, South Dakota to open their season facing off against the Mount Marty University Lancers.
Kobe Samake Krajnc would get things started with a put back layup to put the Swedes on the board first. Both teams would struggle afterwards as neither would be able to by a bucket over the next two minutes. Unfortunately, the Lancers would find their footing first and go on an 8-0 run for a 6-point lead.
Maurice Cudjo II would kill the momentum by converting an and-1 layup. Ty Eugene would later steal the ball and make the fast break layup to cut the Lancer lead to one. Mount Marty would answer back with three points of their own before Cudjo would go on a 6-0 run to put Bethany up 13-11 leading to a Lancer timeout.
Mount Marty would hit two deep balls coming out of the timeout before Jamal Frenchwood and Will Dominguez would team up to give the Swedes the lead with 8:34 left in the first half. Over the next three minutes, there would be seven lead changes capped off by a Devin Spencer made layup. James Carson, Jelani Moreno, and Frenchwood would add on to the lead pushing it to 13 with 1:51 left in the half. The Swedes would lead 40-31 at the break.
Bethany would maintain a double-digit lead for most of the second half as the Lancers would only cut the Swede lead to seven points with 6:29 left to play. Frenchwood would give Bethany their largest lead via a three-pointer with 11:35 left to play at 17 points. The Swedes would take this one 77-64 to start off the season 1-0.
Jamal Frenchwood had a heck of a debut for the Swedes kicking off the season with a double-double scoring 18 points and nabbing 11 rebounds (both team-highs). Maurice Cudjo II (16 points) and James Carson (13 points) both topped double-digit scoring. Devin Spencer orchestrated 4 assists to go along with 4 steals (both team-highs) in this one.
The Swedes would shoot an efficient 50% from the floor compared to the Lancers’ 31.3%. Most of the damage for the Swedes would come from in the paint as Bethany would score 42 of their 77 points in the area. Bench play was solid for both teams as the Swedes would get 32 points from their bench and the Lancers’ bench would contribute 23.
Up Next…
The Swedes will return home and hit the road on Friday, November 3rd to participate in the Coyote Classic in Salina, Kansas hosted by the rival Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes. Bethany will play two games as part of the classic, but first up will be Briar Cliff with a tipoff set for 4:00pm. Their second game will be against Morningside on Saturday, November 4th with a tipoff set for 2:00pm.
