MISHAWAKA – Any idle chatter out there about the demise of the Bethel College men’s basketball team is greatly exaggerated.

The Pilots proved that in a big way Saturday.

Host Bethel rebounded from its first loss of the season in impressive fashion to shoot past Grace College 98-76 in a Crossroads League contest in the Wiekamp Center.

The No. 5 ranked Pilots delivered the knockout punch early to the Lancers by blitzing their guests with an 11-0 run in the first 1:58 of the game to open the conference affair.

Bethel, which lost 84-79 at Taylor Tuesday night, tickled the twine in a torrid shooting display. The hosts hit 35-65 shots from the field and 23-27 free throw attempts to improve to 10-1 overall and  2-1 in league action.

Grace, losers of two in a row in the conference, falls to 8-3 overall and 1-2 in league play.

Bethel now leads the all-time series with Grace by a 64-62 count.

Clay Yeo, the top scorer for the Pilots, lit the fire early for the hosts.  The smooth junior guard drained six quick points to spark the 11-0 run to open the game. Yeo and junior guard Caleb Oetjen each drained triples to get Bethel off and running.

“We missed a couple of shots early and got down,” said Grace coach Jim Kessler, who took a timeout just 1:08 into the clash. “We got punched in the mouth right away and then were back on our heels and had to try and scramble.

“Hat’s off to Bethel. They can light it up in here and they did today. They made a tremendous percentage of their shots, especially early in the game. They just didn’t miss. Their bigs really hurt us. We just did not have an answer for them.”

Both teams lost key players for most of the opening half due to foul trouble. Yeo picked up a pair and sat the final 14:56 for the Pilots. Erik Bowen, the leading scorer for the Lancers, sat the final 15:41 of the half after also getting two fouls.

The Pilots used a 13-0 run in the opening half to lead 51-32 at intermission. Oetjen was terrific with 17 points as Bethel shot 16-32 from the field and 16-19 from the line. Chad Hoffer scored nine points and Logan Irwin eight for Grace.

Yeo, who is averaging 22 points-per-game, tallied 13 points in the second half. The former Triton High School star helped Bethel keep the Lancers at bay the final 20 minutes. Grace got no closer than 14 points in the final half.

Grace was out rebounded by a 45-31 count and was a dismal 8-19 from the line in the loss.

“I thought that every time we had a chance to chip into their lead we had a physical or a mental error,” Kessler remarked. “Oetjen had a stellar performance for them. It was disappointing to get out rebounded like we did and you can’t win shooting 8-19 from the line. That’s pathetic.”

Guard Brandon VanderHegghen, a senior from Mishawaka, led the Lancers with 16 points. He hit four treys as Grace went 10-26 from distance.

The trio of 6-8 sophomore Bowen, Irwin and Chad Hoffer each had 13 points for Grace. Irwin, a senior guard who played at Whitko High School, had seven assists but was 0-6 from the line. Sophomore Hoffer, who played at Tippecanoe Valley High School, was 5-9 from the field.

“We made shots early and that fueled our fire,” said Bethel coach Mike Lightfoot. “We fed off a lot of things today, our fans and our defense. We played really poorly defensively at Taylor Tuesday night. Our defense in the first half today was our best of the year. We contained Irwin and got Bowen in foul trouble. And we kept them off the boards.”

Oetjen had an outstanding game with 24 points. The 6-0 junior hit 9-16 shots, including 3-5 from distance. Yeo and 6-8 freshman forward Luke Fisher each had 19 points for Bethel. Gage Ott, a 6-6 sophomore from LaPorte, added 10 points and Travis Smith, a senior guard from Peru, eight and nine rebounds.

Grace will play IU-Southeast on Dec. 11 at 2:30 p.m.at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Lancers next home game is Dec. 30 versus Indiana Tech at 7:30 p.m. and they return to conference play by hosting Spring Arbor on Jan. 2 at 3 p.m.

Bethel returns to action on Dec. 16 and 17 at a tournament at Keiser University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Pilots play Warner University on Dec. 16 and host Keiser University on Dec. 17. Bethel returns home on Jan. 2 to host No. 1 Indiana Wesleyan University at 3 p.m. in a key conference game.