The visitors from Bethany Lutheran College led from start to finish in Saturday evening's Upper Midwest Athletic Conference match-up with host St. Scholastica, outscoring the Saints 28 to 8 in the paint on the way to a 79-62 road win.

 

St. Scholastica (7-10, 5-2) found themselves down by eight at the intermission in large part due to a 17 to 3 Bethany Lutheran (6-13, 5-2) advantage in second chance points.

 

The second half seemed to be played out mostly at the free throw line as whistles filled the air at the Burns Wellness Commons with 26 fouls called — 16 on the Saints — in the final 20 minutes compared with only 14 fouls combined in the opening stanza.

 

The Saints never found an answer for Bethany's Tommy Saffert who had a game-high 25 points. All five of his baskets from the floor were from behind the 3-point line and he was a perfect 10-of-10 at the free throw line. The 5-foot-7-inch guard even had six rebounds.

 

Leading St. Scholastica offensively were a pair of seniors, Brady Zubke (Laporte, Minn./Park Rapids Area HS) and Eric Langdon (Cloquet, Minn./Cloquet Senior HS), each of whom finished with 15 points. Junior Jesse Taylor (Superior, Wis./Maranatha Academy) also reached double-digits with 12 points.

 

Still, it was down low in the paint where Bethany consistently did the most damage. They out rebounded their hosts by a 35 to 27 margin and finished with an advantage of 23 to 4 in second chance points.

 

Second half shooting also hurt the Saints as they hit only 27 percent (7-of-26) from the field, contributing to a 36 percent mark for the game.

 

The loss drops St. Scholastica out of a first place tie in the UMAC where they started the day even with Northwestern College and Minnesota-Morris, both of whom won on Saturday. Now, the Saints are behind both of the leaders and even with Bethany Lutheran in a tie for second place within the league standings.