ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Bethany Lutheran College Vikings (19-3, 11-0 UMAC) clinched the 2023-24 UMAC Men’s Basketball Regular Season Championship on Friday night, defeating the University of Northwestern Eagles with a 77-70 victory on the road. The regular season title is the second-consecutive for the Vikings, who won last year’s championship with a 13-2 conference record, and their fourth in program history.
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The Vikings fell behind early in the game as the Eagles offense caught fire fast. After a few minutes of play to set the score at 6-6, Northwestern went on a 13-5 run in just 2:47 of game time. UNW built their lead up to 10 points twice in the opening half, the second time on a Henry Fahnbulleh jumper to put the Eagles up 26-16 with 10:10 to go in the opening half. From that point on, however, the Vikings started to rally.
Trailing by 10 midway through the opening half, Bethany Lutheran flipped the script and proceeded to outscore Northwestern 18-9 the rest of the half. With 1:18 to go in the first, Drew Sagedahl made a layup to give BLC their first lead of the game up 34-32.
The Eagles, however, landed one more big shot in the first half as Kelton Vincent hit a three-pointer in the final minute to put Northwestern up 35-34 at halftime.
After halftime, Jax Mason hit a three-point shot for the Vikings to put Bethany Lutheran back on top just 10 seconds into the second half. It was just the start of a thrilling second half as BLC and UNW exchanged baskets back-and-forth, with neither team taking a lead larger than four points until Jeremiah Levelle sank a three-pointer with 7:34 to go in the game to put Northwestern up by seven, leading 60-53.
The Vikings battled back to retake the lead 63-62 on another Sagedahl layup with 4:56 to go. Andrew Koehler would put Northwestern back on top 64-63 with a jumper, but Sagedahl answered right back with a three-point basket to give Bethany Lutheran a two-point lead with 3:11 to go.
Northwestern rallied to tie the game up at 68-68 with 1:41 on the clock, but then Hunter Nielsen drove for a go-ahead layup to put BLC back on top 70-68 with 1:31 to go.
The dagger play was delivered by Sagedahl as he was fouled on a three-point attempt in the final minute. The Viking’s junior made all three free-throw shots in the clutch to give Bethany Lutheran a five-point lead up 73-68 with just 51 seconds to go.
The Vikings defense would hold off the Eagles while making their free-throw shots down the stretch to win the game 77-70 and secure the regular season conference title.
With the championship victory, Bethany Lutheran has clinched the No. 1 seed in the UMAC Men's Basketball Tournament. The Vikings will host the to-be-determined No. 4 seed in the semifinal round on Wednesday, February 21.
For more information about the upcoming postseason championship, check out the tournament page linked below.
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2023-24 UMAC Men’s Basketball Tournament Home Page |