Caleb South scored 46 points to lead a high-flying Bethel Bees offense, leading the hometown team to a 101-81 win over Anna to advance to the district finals tomorrow night at UD Arena.
Ryan Rose added 25 points for the Bees, as they took a 47-35 lead at the half, and cruised to the win.
The Bees now play Roger Bacon at UD Arena tomorrow night, with the gametime tentatively set for 9:30 p.m.
But before getting to the finals, the Bees had to get past National Trail in their opening game of the sectionals.
Leading by 15 at the half, the Bees wanted to lock up their tournament opening victory over National Trail last week in the opening game of the Division Three sectional tournament at the Vandalia Butler Student Activity Center.
It didn’t take them long to quickly separate themselves from the Trail Blazers in the second half, and cruise to an easy 74-37 victory to head into the second round.
Bethel held the Blazers to 15 second-half point, while duplicating their production in the first half with 37 points.
Leading the way for the Bees was junior Caleb South with 22 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals. Ryan Rose added 11 points while Tyler Terry added eight points and eight boards.
Bethel didn’t waste any time setting the tone for this game, as they jumped in front 6-0 quickly and 13-3 with 2:38 left in the opening period. Jacob Evans fired in five points to help give the Bees the lead, which they added to when South and Evans each hit threes to end the quarter, and Bethel led 19-7 after one period.
A 13-0 run early in the second period by the Bees pushed their lead out to 32-11, but the Blazers fought back. They scored the next six points to close their deficit to 15 points, which was the margin of difference at the half, with Bethel leading 37-22.
Then came the fateful third period for the Blazers.
Terry reeled off six straight points to start the period to give Bethel a 43-22 lead, and after National Trail scored a pair of jumpers, the Bees went back to work.
They outscored the Blazers 8-0 over the next three minutes to take their lead out to 51-26, and they never looked back in the fourth.
