The Gustavus men’s basketball team claimed an impressive 72-44 win over second place Bethel in Arden Hills on Saturday afternoon. The Gusties held the Royals 33 points below their scoring average (77.0 ppg) and snapped their eight-game win streak. The win allows Gustavus to maintain first place in the MIAC with a mark of 8-1. Carleton and Macalester are tied for second at 7-2. The Gusties will host Carleton on Monday night in Saint Peter.
The game was close for the first 10 minutes of the contest as Gustavus led 13-8 with 10:08 left before the intermission. The second 10 minutes would be a different story as the Gusties outscored the Royals 27-11 down the stretch and led 40-19 at the half. During that time, Gustavus was 10-of-12 from the field (including 6-of-7 from three point range), while Bethel was four-of-11 from the field (including 0-of-four from three-point range).
The Gusties scored the first three points of the second half to extend their lead to 25 at 43-19, however the Royals countered with a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 15 at 43-28 with 16:37 to play. Eric Nelson struck right back with a trey to extend the Gustavus lead back to 18 (46-28) and Bethel would get no closer than 15 points the rest of the game. The Gusties maintained their lead at more than 20 points in the final ten minutes of play. The difference of 30 points at the buzzer was the biggest lead of the game.
Tim Brown led Gustavus in scoring with 18 points. Others in double figures for the Gusties were Adam TeBrake with 11 and Chris TeBrake with 10. As a team, Gustavus shot 53.8 percent from the field (16-29) including 52.9 percent from three-point range (9-17) and 100 percent from the free throw line (9-9). Bethel, which was led by Tim Gilbert with 15 points, shot 29.3 percent from the field (17-58) including 13.0 percent from three-point range (3-23) and 46.7 percent from the free throw line (7-15).