Bartlesville, Okla. – The Bethany College Swedes Women’s Basketball team started the week off on the right foot with an impressive win over the Oklahoma Wesleyan University Eagles.
The Eagles would start the game off with a three-pointer on the first possession of the night, but senior forward Vasha Moore would answer back with a layup on the following possession and later freshman guard Sierra Kimbrough would tie and take the lead with a pair of free throws. Moore would hit another layup to put the Swedes up 6-3, but Oklahoma Wesleyan would end the streak with a layup of their own. That would not slow the Swedes down at all as Bethany would score another 4 points to force an Eagle timeout and make the score 10-5. Senior Hannah Ferguson, junior Autumn Garrett, and sophomore Sarah Reiner would all score before heading into the second quarter with the Swedes up 15-12. In the 2nd period, the Eagles would score the first 4 points to retake the lead, but that was short-lived as freshman Kisa Unruh would hit a three to regain the lead for the Swedes 18-16. Oklahoma Wesleyan would tie the game on a jumper, but Bethany would take over from there. The Swedes would outscore the Eagles by 8 points for the rest of the half and go into the break with a 31-23 lead.
In the 3rd quarter, both teams would come out swinging as both would score a bucket on each team’s first possession. Afterwards, Bethany would score 9 points straight before Oklahoma Wesleyan would hit a free throw to end the streak. Autumn Garrett would hit a layup to give the Swedes their largest lead of the night at 18 points. The Eagles would outscore the Swedes by 7 points for the rest of the quarter, but Bethany would lead 50-39 going into the final period. The fourth quarter was very close, but the Swedes would outscore the Eagles 17-16 to take the win 67-55.
For the Swedes, Autumn Garrett would lead in scoring with 17 points followed by Hannah Ferguson with 13 and Vasha Moore with 10. Ferguson would lead Bethany in rebounds with 8 followed closely by freshman guard Emily Green with 7. Sierra Kimbrough would dish out 4 assists and nab 4 steals on the night.
As a team, the Swedes would shoot below 40% on the night, but Bethany would score 26 points off 22 Oklahoma Wesleyan turnovers. Out of those 22 forced turnovers by the Swedes, 11 were steals. Bethany would outscore Oklahoma Wesleyan in every quarter in this one.
Up Next…
The Bethany College Swedes Women’s Basketball team will host the Ottawa Braves on Thursday, December 2nd. Tip-off is set for 6PM in Hahn Gymnasium.
