By BOALLEGRUCCI
The Salina Journal
The Bethel junior varsity had arguably the worst hand-me-down uniforms Brown Mackie has faced all season, but the Threshers were also one of the better JV teams to visit the Lions this year.
Garbed in maroon jerseys and black shorts from the mid-90s, Bethel kept it close in the first half and kept it competitive in the second half before Brown Mackie sped off to a 91-79 victory.
Each team shot at least 50 percent from the floor and had four players score in double figures, but the Lions forced 25 turnovers and crushed the smaller Threshers in the paint to climb above .500 (13-12) for the first time this calendar year.
"They (Bethel) were a good JV team, but they’ve got three guys who play a lot on their varsity, and that’s OK" Brown Mackie head coach Francis Flax said. "We knew we could score just about anytime we wanted to, but we played into their hands and got out of character late in the game.
"We are getting tired of these JV games, but we don’t have anymore gimmies after this one."
Thekoy Lol scored eight of Brown Mackie’s first 12 points, and the Lions built three separate nine-point leads in the first half only to watch Bethel come back from each. Thresher Brody Grove was 4 of 5 from 3- point range in the first half, and Bethel shot 7 of 12 as a team from behind the arc.
The Threshers pulled within four late in the first half before Lol slammed home a fast-break alley-oop from Denarius Darby, and Brown Mackie finished the first half with a 12-3 run and a 48-33 halftime lead.
Lol scored 17 of his 21 in the first 20 minutes.
"T’s becoming our go-to guy," Flax said. "I could’ve left him in there, but you don’t want your players like T scoring 40 in a game like this, and we want to see a lot of action. We’ll shorten our rotation from where it was tonight. We’ll probably play nine guys the rest of the way, but we needed to get everybody playing time while we can."
An 11-2 Lion run stretched the lead to 20 early in the second half, and Brown Mackie spent the rest of the game working on a variety of full-court presses. Six straight points from Marquis Whitt and a 3-point play by T.J. Bryant pushed the Lions’ lead to 74-49 with 10:13 to play, but Bethel forward Ri’Tea Acosta scored 18 of his game-high 22 in the second half as Bethel closed the final margin to a dozen.
The 6-foot-6 Acosta drew the ire of Flax and the Lions in the closing seconds when he stole the ball from an unassuming Brown Mackie ball-handler and tried to score after Lions had called off the dogs.