A BIG NIGHT...for Michael James and the Bethel Bees as they defeated Franklin Monroe 64-44 to finish 11-1 in the CCC.

Bob Moore
cccbasketball.com

Pitsburg - Michael James led a quartet of Bee players in double figures with 25 points as Bethel clinched a share of the Cross County Conference with a convincing 64-44 win over the Franklin Monroe Jets. The Bees and Tri-Village Patriots finished the conference race with 11 wins and 1 loss and share the overall lead in the 32 year history of the CCC with 7 conference titles.

The Franklin Monroe Jets played in their home finale with senior night and honored their lone senior, Landon Bundenthal. The Jet underclassmen gave their lone senior a good start of the contest by forcing 2 Bethel turnovers and connecting with deuce in the paint by Van Spitler and a trey by fellow junior, Kyle Detling that gave the Jets a 5-0 lead.

Michael James connected with a trey at the 6:42 mark for Bethel while the Jets continued to attack the Bee defense with great ball movement, getting their share of looks from both outside and in the paint. The Jets crashed the boards and had several shots within the paint in the first minutes of the game but could not get a shot to fall.

Daniel Yates tied the game at 5 with two tosses from the charity stripe and again the Jets had three shots denied after causing another Bethel turnover. Bethel finally took the lead after a nice assist from Jon Sutton to James on the block and extended the lead to 4 when Yates connected on a baseline jumper.

Spitler narrowed the margin to 2 as the Jet's 6'4" junior found some success inside battling the Bethel big men in the paint. James countered on the next possession with his second trey from the right wing. Spitler kept pace as he scored this time off the left elbow as FM continued to generate looks off their motion offense. James connected with his third trey from the right wing on the next possession that provided the Bess with a 15-9 lead. The Bees maintained the 6 point margin through the remaining 2 minutes and led the Jets 17-11 after the first quarter.

The first 6 minutes of the second quarter the Bees were able to extend the lead to 8 points until Detling nailed his second trey of the night for the Jets to narrow the gap to 5, 25-20.

The turning point of the game happened at the 1:58 mark when Spitler committed his 3rd personal foul on Grant Samuel. Samuel nailed both shots at the line and Bees extended their pressure to the perimeter with FM's main threat in the paint sitting on the bench. Jon Sutton stole the ball and went coast to coast with a layup and went to the line after being fouled. Scott Masin gathered in the rebound on the Sutton miss and found Sutton open in the paint to complete four points in one trip down the floor. Bethel forced two more turnovers in the remaining possessions for the Jets and Sutton was the benefactor as he completed a 10 point run for the Bees in the final 2 minutes to extend their lead to 15 at the break, 35-20.

The Jets started the second half with 4 points to narrow the gap to 35-24, but Spitler committed his 4th personal foul with only a minute and 7 seconds into the quarter. The Bees went on a 12 to 2 run to extend their lead to 47-26. The Jets were able to put together one more run to narrow the gap to 16 points but the Bees would complete the scoring in the 3rd when Scott Masin made a nice high-low entry pass to fellow big man Grant Samuel on the block. Samuel made the bucket while fouled by a Jet defender and completed the 3 point play with a free throw that gave the Bees a 19 point lead going into the 4th quarter.

With a nineteen point lead the senior laden Bees went on to secure the win and a share of the CCC title. The Bees ended their season with an impressive 16-4 record and will begin play in the Division III tournament as the number 3 seed.

"Mike James hit some big shots for us to get us back in the game after being down 5," noted Bethel coach Rick Hickman in his post game comments. "FM came out strong on their senior night, they came out believing in themselves and wanting it; and we had to respond. They had opportunities in the beginning of the game and they got some shots against us that teams haven't got on us in quite a while. Fortunately for us, they didn't fall. They played a heck of a game and they are well coached."

"Our boys really stepped up and they were patient when they needed to be and I‚m really proud of them," continued Hickman.

On winning a share of the Cross County Conference title Hickman quickly noted that it is "Better than the alternative!" "In the Cross County Conference the teams are well coached and you got to be on your A game every night. You have one night where you shoot 13 for 26 from the free throw line or 8 for 20 from the field like we did at Tri-Village you are going to lose. After that night at TV we all went into the locker room and we recognized that feeling of losing and we all acknowledged that we didn't want that feeling no more. We talked about players having to step up with shots from the perimeter. I told them that we have several good outside shooters; Now let's show it! That is really where our focus has been. I told them that there are only three things wrong with your outside shooting: Confidence, Confidence and Confidence. We've made some strides our last three games with our outside shooting and hopefully that will continue in the tournament."

The Bees face a very good West Liberty Salem team that played #2 State Ranked Anna to 2 points in the first half in their regular season game several weeks ago. "Even though we are a #3 seed in the tournament, we don't have an easy road and we are going to have to bring our A game and be ready. We don't have any show up and win games in our draw," noted Hickman. "I told our kids, let's not focus on who we play but how we play. If we can keep that focus I think we will do well."

The Bees will face West Liberty Salem at 6:30 on February 26th at the Wright State Nutter Center. The Jets will likely play number two seed Southeastern in their first game on March 3rd at 7:45 in the Division IV sectional at Troy High School.

Scoring by quarters

Bethel ....17....35....52....64
FM ..........11....20....33....44

Bethel
James - 25
Sutton - 11
Masin - 11
Yates - 10
Samuel - 5
Seale - 2
FG % 58.1 (25/43) FT % 71 (10/14)
3 Point Goals - 4 (James 3, Sutton) (4/11 36.3%)

Franklin Monroe
Spitler - 14
Detling - 12
Brehm - 7
Bundenthal - 6
Shrodi - 3
Horner - 2
FG% 30.1 (16/53) FT% 70 (7/10)
3 Point Goals - 5 (Detling 3, Brehm, Shrodi) (5/18 27.7%)