RIO GRANDE, Ohio – Men's basketball built a substantial lead into the second half before surviving a late surge by Bethel to pick up its first win of the 2012-13 season. The Bears (1-1) took a 58-44 lead into the break and led by as many as 15 with 8:52 left in the second half. However, Bethel battled all the way back to within a point, but saw its shot for the win miss as SSU held on for the 83-82 win.
For the second straight game, Jeremy Bennington led all scorers with a game-high and career-high 29 points. Tyler Morgan added 21 points to the winning effort, while Trevor Banks added 10.
Bethel took an early lead to start the contest and found themselves up by four, at 17-13, with 12:50 to play in the opening half. However, the Bears would go on a 13-0 run to take their first lead of the game. All of those points game within a 2:14 span as they took a 26-17 lead.
The Bears would stretch their lead to as many as 17 points with just around 14 minutes to play in the second half and hold their 15-point lead with 8:52 to go, but Bethel was not going to go away quietly. SSU slowly saw its lead slip to 12 points with 6:12 to go and get cut to eight points with 4:14 left to play.
After cutting the lead to six with a three pointer with 2:04 remaining in regulation, the Bears could not score on their next possession and Bethel came right back down and knocked down another three to make the game a one possession battle.
A jumper in the paint with 22 seconds cut the lead to one and capped an 8-0 run in the course of just two minutes. Bethel would foul and the Bears could not convert the front end of the one-and-one, giving them a shot in the finals seconds to complete the comeback. However, with under five seconds to go in the contest, Bethel could not get its final attempt to go down and Banks was there to pick up the rebound.
He was fouled and missed his free throw attempt. The Bears were able to get enough pressure on the rebounder to tip the ball out of his hands as he was unable to even get his attempt at a full court miracle off.
In addition to the three double-figure scoring games, Austin Vance added eight points to the winning effort, while Ian Nixson finished with six points and six assists.
The Bears will now make the trip to Daytona Beach, Fla. where they will take on host Embry-Riddle on Nov. 9 in a 7 p.m. start. SSU will play two games during their time in Florida.
