BETHANY – In a tuneup for their trip to Washington, D.C., Bethany routed winless Clinton, 88-17, Thursday (Jan. 11) in a Western Conference matchup.

The Lady Bronchos (9-2) led 27-0 before Clinton’s Lillian Lime hit two free throws with 0:37 left in the first quarter for the Lady Reds, now 0-12. Bethany was in complete command at halftime, 51-12.

Bethany coach Eric Sailer rested his starters in the second half and with a stretch of eight games in 12 days looming.

“These next 12 days we will play eight games. We knew we wanted to try to keep our legs fresh,” Sailer said via text message. “The plan was to spread minutes out amongst the team.”

The Bethany backups held Clinton scoreless in the third quarter thanks in part to guard Ali Linn. The freshman scored 14 of her 18 points in that quarter and collected five steals in the third.

“Ali has been giving us some good minutes lately. This was a really good confidence builder for her,” Sailer said. “Hopefully she can build off of this and continue to grow!!!”

Behind Linn, junior forward Keziah Lofton scored 17, senior forward Zya Vann added 15 points and junior forward Kayten Donley scored 10 before all being resting after halftime.

The Lady Bronchos had 11 players who scored in the game.

Despite meeting an overmatched Clinton team, Sailer said the Western Conference win was important.

“That is one of our goals this year to win a conference title,” Sailer said. “So any conference win is a good win!”

UP NEXT: The Lady Bronchos head to Washington, D.C. to meet St. John’s College Prep, a team who received consideration and has been ranked in the ESPN national poll on Saturday (Jan. 13). They’ll then meet Morris Catholic, eighth-ranked in the same poll Monday (Jan. 16).

“The team is super excited about our trip to DC, hopefully they can get some rest tonight before we fly out,” Sailer said.

TEAM	1	2	3	4	F
Clinton	2	10	0	5	17
Bethany	29	22	23	14	88