MIAC Monday Evening Roundup - 3-1-21

 Just one game on this Monday night but it was a big one and a good one as Bethel made the trip down US Highway 169 and the Union Pacific's Mankato Sub portion of the famed "Omaha Route" mainline down to St Peter to take on league-leading GAC.  The Gusties were 4-0 and coming off a big home win over a young Concordia team this last weekend while the visiting Royals were coming into this contest with a 3-1 record and had recorded a routine home win against CSB on Saturday as well.  The Royals would wind up having the upper hand after 1 period with a 17-15 lead and they would grow that lead to 20-15 early into the second period.  But GAC would respond with a 10-2 run to take a 25-22 lead midway through the second period and a lay-up by senior forward Paige Richert with 3:02 left in the period gave the Gusties a 27-22 advantage but Bethel would manage to close things up to just one point by the halftime break down 27-26.  

The third period saw GAC grow their lead to 37-30 after a score by sophomore forward Caitlin Rorman at the 7:14 mark that also drew a foul and resulted in the "and one" as well.  But the Royals would quickly close to within a single possession down 37-35 midway through the third period before the Gusties could manage to step on the gas pedal again and grab a six-point advantage at 45-39 thanks to a Rorman jumper with 2:19 left.  Early in the fourth period, a Richert lay-up at the 9:29 mark had GAC in very good shape again up by seven at 49-42 and when willowy senior guard Marisa Gustafson connected with a lay-up at the 6:54 mark, the Gusties had their largest lead at nine at 53-44.  Bethel used its trademark pressure defense to create some turnovers down the stretch and they did manage to get the deficit down to five points at 57-52 with a little two minutes left but they could never get closer than that as the Gusties picked up a huge 63-54 victory to set up the showdown - the one last fling - at UST on Wednesday night.  A check of the final box score shows that the Gusties had the edge on the boards on this night by a 32-25 count and GAC's Richert pulled down 11 of those rebounds despite taking a hard fall midway through the first period.  Bethel did force GAC into 22 turnovers on this night and also enjoyed a 40-34 edge in points in the paint.  But the Royals, who do rely on solid three-point shooting, were only 3-21 for 14.3% and a shaky 5-12 from the charity stripe for 41.7% and in close games, that's simply not good enough.  Just to show you how incredibly deep this GAC team really is, the Gusties enjoyed a 30-21 edge in bench points.  Rorman led the way with her 13 points and Gustafson was right behind with 12 points.  On the Bethel side, senior forward Elizabeth Schwarz led all scorers with her 14 points while sophomore guard Kat Brown-Erdal was right behind with her 13 points.