ASKEWVILLE – Before Friday night’s game against Fellowship, Bethel Christian Academy Coach Joe Mizelle, explained that he expected a tough contest, as Fellowship would be one of the better teams his squad would face this season.

With guard Trey Denton hobbling around the court with an injury, forward Jonathan Hoggard dominated the game from the paint, and the Fellowship Lions never got settled as Bethel won by a score of 57-33.

Denton began the game pushing the ball up the court furiously and after the first period, the Eagles found themselves with a 16-2 lead.

After a lay-up, Denton appeared to injure his knee and spent more time than usual on the bench recovering. The injury did not stop him from leading his team in scoring with 17 points.

It was the dominating play of Hoggard however, who owned the boards on both ends of the floor, and finished with six points, two assists and two blocks to go along with his game-high 12 rebounds.

With only seven players on the Bethel bench, ‘Coach Joe’ was forced to give everyone significant minutes, and his team came through in great fashion.

Larry Caldwell finished with 14 points, and Stephen Miller had six points to go along with his nine rebounds. It was Hoggard and Josh Freeman, who ended up being the catalyst in the Eagles’ win, as they filled in all the blanks left by the Lions’ attempts to slow down Denton.

Freeman’s stat line included four points to go along with a game-high nine assists, and four steals.

Foul trouble was really all the Lions could accomplish against a total team effort by Bethel. At one point in the first half the Lions had nine team fouls to Bethel’s zero.

With less than two minutes remaining in the game, Bethel had a 54-28 lead and coasted in as three Fellowship players fouled out in the last minute despite being down by double digits.

&uot;I expected a better game,&uot; Mizelle said. &uot;I guess tonight wasn’t their night. My kids played great, especially being shorthanded.&uot;

Robert Whitt led the Lions with 11 points.

Bethel (57): Trey Denton – 17, Larry Caldwell – 14, S. Miller – 6, J. Askew – 6,

J. Hoggard – 6, F. Feher – 4, J. Freeman – 4

Fellowship (33): Robert Whitt – 11, D. Stephens – 8, M. Tucker – 7, J. Bland – 5, A. Pierce – 2