The Bethany Bruins set two records and finished their season with a winning record Saturday afternoon in Scotts Valley with a decisive 104-87 men's basketball victory over the visiting UCSC Sea Lions. Bethany closes the season at 15-14. while UCSC finishes at 5-20.
"I've never seen our guys up for a game more than they were tonight. They played an excellent game in front of a packed homecoming crowd," said Bethany Coach Dewey Short. Bruin point guard Greg Farnngton dished off 13 assists against UCSC to give him 157 on the season and break teammate Russ Hajik's team record of 150 set two years ago. Hajik, not to be left out of the limelight, picked off nine steals in the game to tie the career mark of 254 set by Ron Marujo last season. Bethany took advantage of of UCSC turnovers in the first half to forge a solid 64-46 advantage by the intermission.
"The turnovers really hurt us bad in the first half and they scored on a lot of uncontested shots," said UCSC Coach Joe Richardson, whose team trimmed their turnover total to six in the second half. Although UCSC didn't improve much over last year record-wise, Richardson pointed out the Sea Lions only gave up 100 points on seven occasions this year compared to 10 times last season.
"Even though our record didn't improve that drastically, we came a long way as a team. We're encouraged." Richardson said.
Center Bob Johnson scored 20 of his game-high 34 points during the first-half Bethany binge. Teammates Mike Sellars and Scott Glasnapp chipped in with 21 and 18 points, respectively. Dave Little topped UCSC with 22 points, while Sea Lion Mike Weaver added 18 to give him over 400 points for the second straight season. Kevin Lynch and Russ Henshall scored 15 and 14 points, respectively, for UCSC in the game.
UCSC (87) Little 9-4-22 Weaver 8-2-18, Lynch 7-1-15, Henshall 5-4-14, Barrett 4-1-9, Barrett 4-1-9. Totals -37-13-87.
BETHANY (104) Johnson 15-4-34, Sellars 10-1-21, Glasnapp 7-4-18, Hagen 5-3-13. Haiik 4-0-8 Farrington 2-0-4, Strubhar 2-0-4, Lindvall 1-0-2 Totals -46-12-104
UCSC (5-20) 46 41- 84
Bethany (15-14) 64 40-104
