Gary Cooper led Gustavus in Wednesday’s 65-64 loss to Bethel. The junior guard scored 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting. He also brought down six rebounds and tallied four steals.
ARDEN HILLS, MINN. – In an unprecedented and unfortunate conclusion, the Gustavus Adolphus men’s basketball team fell to Bethel University 65-64 on Wednesday evening at Robertson Center Gym. In a game that featured five lead changes in the final 10 seconds, the Gusties were unable to hold off Royal guard Brycen Wojta’s jump shot that gave Bethel the final and most important lead change with just a tenth of a second remaining on the clock. With the loss, Gustavus falls to 6-4 in the MIAC and 10-5 overall, while Bethel jumps to 6-4 in the MIAC and 10-4 overall.
After trailing 5-0 early on, Gustavus was able to take an eight-point lead (22-14) with 7:41 remaining in the first half. Bethel clawed to within two (28-26) at the 3:18 mark, but two quick baskets from junior guard Gary Cooper (Detroit, Mich.) and a jumper from senior forward Martin Feddersen (Winona, Minn.) allowed the Gusties to go into the half with a 34-28 lead.
Following the half, Gustavus continued to gradually build on its lead and led 42-32 with 16:31 remaining in the game. However, Bethel went on a 16-6 run over the next six minutes to tie the game at 49-48 with 8:38 remaining in the game. From that point forward, neither team would lead by more than four points, setting up the inevitable dramatic finish.
A Cooper jump shot with 1:02 remaining gave the Gusties a 62-61 lead that would hold until the eight second mark. A Feddersen foul on Bethel’s Kyle Zimmermann gave the Royal senior two free-throws and the big man converted both to give Bethel the 63-62 lead.
A foul by Bethel’s Kyle Von Schmidt-Pauli on the Gustie inbound gave Feddersen a chance to give Gustavus the lead back and the senior captain did so, as he calmly hit both free-throws on his 1-and-1 opportunity to give the Gusties a 64-63 lead with six seconds remaining.
However, Bethel was able to inbound to Wojta who dribbled the entire length of the court and sank a contested 15-foot jump shot from the right elbow to give the Royals a 65-64 advantage with 0.1 seconds left on the clock. Gustavus called timeout and followed with a full-court pass and tip-in attempt, but Wojta intercepted the pass at the Gustie free-throw line to secure the Royal victory.
Brody Ziegler nearly tallied a double-double in Wednesday’s 65-64 loss to Bethel. The junior big man scored nine points and brought down 11 rebounds.
Cooper led Gustavus with 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting. He also brought down six rebounds and tallied four steals. Brody Ziegler (Jr., Mankto, Minn.) nearly had a double-double with nine points on 4-of-12 shooting and notched 11 rebounds, while Isaac Tapp (Sr., Stewartville, Minn.) added 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting.
As he has done for much of the season, Zimmermann led the Royals. The forward tallied a team high 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting and also had a team high nine rebounds and three assists.
Gustavus shot 43.1-percent from the floor (25-for-48), while Bethel shot an even 51-percent (25-for49). It was the first time in four games that the Gusties did not hold their opponent to less than 40-percent shooting.
Gustavus will continue its road trip one week from today, when it travels to St. Paul for a rematch with No. 3 St. Thomas on Jan. 28. Gustavus handed St. Thomas its only loss of the season in a 68-65 victory on Dec. 3, 2014, but the Tommies have rattled off 10 straight wins since then, including an 86-77 road victory over No. 19 St. Olaf College earlier this evening. Tip-off with the Tommies is set for 7 p.m. at Schoenecker Arena.
Heartbreaker!