KWU Athletics
LINDSBORG – Kansas Wesleyan women's coach Ryan Showman looked at the sheet of paper that had the game's final statistics and quickly pointed to the two biggest culprits in his team's loss to Bethany.
"The two things we talked about were turnovers and offensive rebounds, they make a lot of their offense off of that," Showman said Saturday night following the Coyotes' 68-55 Kansas Conference loss to the Swedes inside Hahn Gymnasium. "Forty-three of their 68 points were off turnovers and offensive rebounds – that was the difference right there."
Indeed. Wesleyan had 28 turnovers in the game, 16 the first half, and Bethany snagged 18 offensive rebounds, 12 the first half. That and their own 37 percent shooting (24 of 62) were more than the Coyotes could overcome.
The loss dropped KWU to 18-9 overall and 15-8 in the KCAC while Bethany improved to 19-10, 15-8.
The Swedes' full-court defensive pressure caused problems for the Coyotes throughout the game.
"The first half, despite our many turnovers, we were still able to do some good things offensively," Showman said. "But we knew we couldn't go into the second half and turn it over as much as we did.
"I thought we had some costly turnovers, some timely turnovers that when we were starting to make a run, we'd have a turnover or we'd get a couple of stops in a row and we'd give extra possessions. And against a good team on the road, you can't do that."
A 12-1 run gave KWU an 18-15 lead with 6:12 left in the first half but the Swedes answered with a 16-6 surge and led 31-26 with just under three minutes left. They led 33-29 at the break.
Trailing 30-27 late in the third quarter, three consecutive turnovers led to seven unanswered Bethany points. The Swedes had a 49-39 advantage after three quarters and scored seven of the first eight points of the fourth quarter for a 54-40 lead with seven minutes left. KWU got no closer than 10 the rest of the game.
Amanda Hill led Wesleyan with 15 points while Catherine Bowman had 12 and LaMyah Ricks 10 but the Coyotes were 24 of 62 from the field – 4 of 21 from beyond the arc. Kelcey Hinz, the team's second-leading scorer, finished with two points on 1 of 6 shooting but grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked three shots.
"We didn't do a great job looking to get those post touches that we've been really good at in our wins," Showman said. "It was because we were able to get those touches and we didn't do that tonight."
The Coyotes played well enough defensively, limiting the Swedes to 27 of 78 shooting (34.6 percent), including 2 of 17 from deep. But Bethany had just 12 turnovers that led to six KWU points and outscored the Coyotes 12-3 at the free throw line.
"I thought they made some tough shots, they made some low clock shots," Showman said. "They did what they had to do to win. They played with more urgency in important stretches throughout the second half than we did."
Wesleyan plays its final two regular season games next week. Bethel comes to Mabee Arena for a 6 p.m. contest Wednesday and the Coyotes travel to Wichita for a 5 p.m. game Saturday against Friends.