MISHAWAKA – After Tuesday night’s overtime win against Huntington University Bethel College men’s basketball coach Mike Lightfoot achieved yet another historical milestone becoming the all-time winningest head coach at a four-year Indiana college with 735 career wins.

Lightfoot passes legendary coach Paul Patterson who reached 734 wins at Taylor University during his 34-year stint with the Trojans.

In his 28th season as the Bethel College skipper Lightfoot has won 73.3 percent of the games he’s coached in (735-267).

Under Lightfoot’s watch, the Pilots have won three NAIA and four NCCAA national championships, 18 Crossroads League regular season and tournament titles and made eleven NAIA national championship tournament appearances. In those eleven appearances, Lightfoot has coached the Pilots to three national championships, tied for the most of any program in Division II history, a national runner-up and a Final Four. The Pilots are the only team to win back-to-back national championships and appear in three straight national championship games (97-98-99).

Lightfoot is the 20th-quickest coach in men’s college basketball history to 700 career wins, doing so in only 960 games, and the 3rd-quickest in NAIA history. He has won more games than all previous seven Bethel coaches combined (735-441).

The Pilots have been equally successful in the classroom under Lightfoot. In his first 27 years, Lightfoot has graduated just over 98 percent of his players who have completed their eligibility.

A total of 31 Scholar Athletes, 26 Academic All-Conference players and six Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Teams have been under the tutelage of the veteran coach.

The Pilots are currently ranked No. 8 in the nation with a record of 23-4.