When you are starting 4 sophomores and a junior experience is a good thing. The Bees will be able to add another game of experience to their young resume with a 78 – 56 victory over the Xenia Christian Ambassadors. The Bees beat the Ambassadors for the second time this season and advanced in the Division IV Vandalia Sectional bracket to play the #2 seed Jefferson Broncos at 7:30 on the Tuesday, February 19th.

On December 8, 2007 the Bees cruised to a 64 – 49 victory on the Ambassador’s home court. To beat a team the second time after a 25 point victory appears to be another day in the gym for 15 and 16 year olds. Convince that to a Coach is another question and Bethel Coach Chris Endres is no exception.

Relieved to have the first one out of way Endres was happy to gain another day to play, but that is not to say that the prep time didn’t have some anxieties associated with it. “I’ve been freaking out this whole week!” exclaimed Endres. “It’s in the back of these kids mind that we’re going to crush these guys and move on to Jefferson and I’ve been trying to convince these guys all week that you can’t think like that.”

The Ambassadors leaped to a 14 – 8 lead after they drained a trio of treys with dribble penetration and kick out passes shooters beyond the arc. At this point the talk of the week’s practice and pre-game noting that ‘they’ve improved since that first game’ began to sink in with young charges from Bethel. The Bees responded with an 11 point run to end the quarter and took control of the remainder of the game.

The Bees were lead by Scott Masin who scored 6 of his 22 points at the end of the first quarter that gave the Bees the spark needed to extend their lead.

The second quarter had balance scoring as fellow sophomores Daniel Yates, Jon Sutton, Michael James and junior Tim Walters extended Bethel’s lead to 40 – 29 at the half.

Yates finished the game with 17 points and did a great job of distributing the ball to his team mates. Yates and his team mates did a great job of limiting the turnover count through the entire contest.

The Ambassadors climbed within 7 points in the middle of the third quarter but Masin added 6 points at the end of the quarter that stopped the XC run and extended the lead back to 10.

In the 4th quarter the Bees received a spark from Junior Nick McIntosh as he drained his first two free throws and benefited from some good passes from his team mates. McIntosh finished with 10 points in the quarter and Bees were able to outscore the Ambassadors 25 to 13 for the quarter to advance to the second round game with Jefferson.

“The (Adreian) Payne kid adds a lot. When you have Brian Gregory (University of Dayton) and Sean Miller (Xavier) coming to see you play you know you have something special” Endres commenting on the 6’9” recruit from Jefferson. “Our kids have played against him before in summer league, so our kids are familiar with him but it is going to be a test.”

“I think our kids being so young and being in their first tournament game did a terrific job of keeping their poise. For being a young team these guys have shown poise and confidence all year and I’m really proud of these guys and effort of our coaching staff.”

Scoring by quarters
Bethel……..19…40…53…78
Xenia Chr....14…29…43…56

Bethel
Yates – 17
Walters – 6
Sutton – 4
Masin – 22
Kahle – 2
Kley – 2
James – 7
McIntosh – 10
Samuel – 8
FG% 51.6 (31-50) FT% 57.7 (15-26)

XC
Stock – 4
Callan – 8
McNeeley – 6
Copper – 9
Nickerson – 14
Clark – 12
Demana – 3
FG% 41.2 (21-51) FT% 47.1 (8-17)

3 Point Goals
Bethel – 1 (James)
XC – 6 (Cooper 3, Stock, Nickerson, Demana)