The Gustavus men’s basketball team opened up a double-digit lead midway through the first half and never looked back on its way to a convincing 90-68 win over Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minn. on Saturday night. James Hill led the Gusties with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
With 6:15 remaining in the first half, Gustavus was holding a slim 34-30 lead over Bethany, however the Gusties used a 17-3 run over the next five minutes pushing their lead to a commanding 18 points at 51-33 at the 1:26 mark. Hill scored seven of the Gusties 17 points during the extended run. Gustavus held a 14-point lead at 51-37 at the intermission.
In the second half, the Gustavus lead was 10 points at 63-53 with 13:10 left to play, however the Gusties went on a 13-0 run to push their lead to 23 points at 76-53 at the 8:45 mark. Bethany would get no closer than 20 points the rest of the way as Gustavus improved to 2-1 on the season with a 90-68 victory.
Four Gusties reached double figures in scoring including Hill with 17, Dan Schmidtknecht with 16, and Reed Sallstrom and Blake Shay with 10 points each.
Gustavus 50 percent from the field (36-72) and 78.6 percent from the free throw line (11-14) and outrebounded Bethany 43-35.
With the win, Gustavus improved its record to 4-2 against Bethany in the all-time series and it marked the first time in the series that the home team did not win.