Bethel’s Caleb South scores two of his 40 points as the Bethel Bees knocked off Franklin Monroe last week. (Julie Shoopman photo)

When the season began, the Bethel boys’ basketball team created goals they want to reach this year. The first goal is to win the Cross County Conference title, and they took the first step on Friday.

One of the teams the Bees knew would be a big challenge was Franklin Monroe, as they boast a tall, veteran lineup that Bethel would have to contend with on their way to that goal.

Mission number one accomplished.

Behind 40 points from Caleb South, the Bees ended the game on a 13-2 run and knocked off the Jets 73-59 to run their conference record to 3-0.

“This is the biggest game of the year so far for us because Troy is a good coach and he will have them ready for us,” said Bethel coach Brett Kopp. “They have a 6-foot-9 kid plus Ethan Conley and we don’t have that.”
“Ian Anderson, Christian White, Nate Rimkus and Jacob Evans were unbelievable tonight. We lacked size but they executed what we wanted to do defensively. They are the reason we won the game.”

Kopp was shocked to hear that South had 40 in the game, and thought he did a good job getting them in the offense.

“It has never been just him, and I don’t feel like he was forcing the issue tonight,” Kopp said. “We had a talk earlier about forcing shots, and tonight I don’t think he forced it. If you can score 40 like that, that is impressive.”

Bethel jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead as three different Bees scored. The Jets however have a lot of firepower and took a 14-13 lead when they scored six straight points.

South then scored five quick points and White nailed a big three at the buzzer, pushing the Jets lead to 22-15 after eight minutes.

The Bees took a double figure lead when Jesse Nickell hit a three to open the second period, but back came the Jets. Seven straight points closed the gap to 25-22, but South took over again. He reeled off seven straight points and Tyler Terry added a shot around the rim, taking the Bees lead back out to 34-25.

The Jets ended the half with the final three points to make it 37-30 at the break.

The second half was much of the same. The Jets never took the lead, but the Bees could not put the game away. The Bees did lead 52-39 when South scored consecutive baskets with 2:38 left in the third period and it looked like Bethel was on the verge of taking over the game. Franklin Monroe quickly shut down the Bethel offense for the rest of the quarter and outscored them 8-0 to make it a two possession game going to the fourth.

The final eight minutes was quite a battle, as the Jets only trailed 60-57 with 4:09 left. Bethel then took over and went on the game-ending run to earn the win.

In addition to South’s output, Ryan Rose added 11 for the Bees.

Bethel returns to action Friday hosting Arcanum.

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