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The Kansas Wesleyan Women's Basketball team is looking to rebound from a disappointing loss to Bethany on Saturday night as the Coyotes take on Bethel College and Tabor College this week as Kansas Conference play continues. Wesleyan heads to North Newton on Thursday to take on Bethel and will host Tabor on Saturday at Mabee Arena.

Both games will be streamed live on the KCAC Broadcast Network on kcacsports.com. Live Audio and Live Stats will also be available online at kwucoyotes.com. The games can also be heard locally on the radio on Classic Hits 104.9 FM with Mike Hammett and Justin Dean on the call for the Coyotes.

Kansas Wesleyan enters the week 11-10 overall and 6-4 in the KCAC, in a three-way tie with Sterling and McPherson for third place in the conference standings.

The Coyotes are coming off a 61-53 loss to Bethany on Saturday night in Lindsborg, the first loss by KWU to the Swedes in the last 10 meetings. Wesleyan got 16 points from sophomore Christian Cassity but shot just 30.2 percent in the game. KWU led by seven with 14 minutes left in the game, but an 8-0 run turned the tide as Bethany pulled away for its first conference win of the season. Wesleyan has dropped six of its last nine games.

Bad news keeps coming for the Coyotes as they learned Monday that senior forward Rebekah Bunde will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury suffered against Ottawa last Thursday.

Junior Stephanie Frost continues to lead the Coyotes in scoring (10.7) and rebounding (6.24). After reaching 1000 career points on January 12 against McPherson, Frost can now turn her attention to going for the Kansas Wesleyan career points record of 1568 set by Joedy Zimmerman in 1985. She has 1033 points through play on Saturday.

The Coyotes are shooting 38.9 percent as a team, averaging 64 points per contest, 4.8 points per game better than their opponents. Wesleyan ranks 17th in the NAIA in Total Rebound Defense (34.5), 19th in 3-point field goal defense (.271) and 25th in scoring defense (59.2).

SCOUTING BETHEL (8-9 OVERALL, 4-6 KCAC)
Bethel enters Thursday's game with an 8-9 overall record and 4-6 in the KCAC after a 70-65 loss to McPherson on Saturday. The Threshers shot just 30.7 percent from the field for the game despite getting 13 points from leading scorer Chelsea Harris and a 10-point, 18-rebound double-double by April Harpe. McPherson also shot 17 more free throws than Bethel.

The Threshers are scoring 64 points per game and are led by Chelsea Harris at 12.2 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. Bethel shoots 33.8 percent from the field and 23.8 percent from three-point range. Bethel ranks seventh nationally in offensive rebounds per game (17.3) and outrebounds their opponents 43.2 to 40.1 per game.

THE LAST MEETING (KWU 66, Bethel 43 at Salina)…

Starting out down 8-0, the Kansas Wesleyan Women's Basketball team didn't lose its composure against the Bethel Threshers. Instead, the Coyotes did what championship teams are conditioned to do – work hard and whatever it takes to win. Having junior forward Stephanie Frost produce another game-controlling performance with a 23-point, 14-rebound double-double didn't hurt things either. Despite the early deficit the Coyotes rallied and cruised by the Bethel Threshers 66-43 on Saturday night at Mabee Arena.

Montric Santee scored Wesleyan's first four points after the Coyotes fell behind 8-0 with 17:25 to go on a three by Bethel's Payton Walker and a bucket by Frost with 15:26 to go got the Coyotes back within two at 8-6. Wesleyan fell back behind by five at 12-7 with 13:51 left in the half when the Coyote offense got things going, and a stepped up defensive effort helped  things along as well.

A three by Frost, followed by another triple by Shelby Babcock gave the Coyotes their first lead of the night at 13-12 with 11:23 to go in the opening half. Wesleyan's offensive run continued, stretching out to a 32-6 run that gave the Coyotes a 32-14 lead with 1:42 to go in the half on Rebekah Bunde's free throw. Bethel went scoreless for period of over nine minutes in the game, scoring at the 13:51 mark and not again until the 4:27 mark.

Babcock's shot started falling as well as the senior knocked down three first half triples and hit three free throws after being fouled on another try for 12 first half points. She did not score in the second half, leaving her just three points short of 1000 for her career at Wesleyan.

After the half, the Coyotes picked up right where they left off, outscoring Bethel 12-4 to open the period to take a 46-20 lead with 13:40 left on a Frost bucket. A bucket by Christian Cassity with 8:51 left pushed Wesleyan's lead over 30 points for the first time at 54-23.

Bethel (4-5, 0-2 KCAC) never got closer than 23 points the rest of the game as the Coyotes closed out the 66-43 win.

Frost's 23 points and 14 boards were easily game highs while Babcock's 12 made her the only other Coyote in double figures. Wesleyan shot a little better than Thursday's performance against Bethany, going 22-of-58 for 37.9 percent, and the Coyote dominated the boards, outrebounding Bethel 51-33.

Chelsea Harris had 12 off the bench for Bethel to pace the Threshers who shot just 13-of-56 from the field for 23.2 percent. Harris also led Bethel with nine rebounds.

SCOUTING THE TABOR BLUEJAYS (3-17 OVERALL, 1-9 KCAC)
Tabor enters the week with a 3-17 overall record, including a 1-9 mark in the KCAC. The Bluejays are coming off a 73-35 loss to No. 16 Southwestern (then ranked No. 23) on Saturday night. Tabor committed 31 turnovers in the game. Katlyn Mary led Tabor with eight points, while Tynan Honn had six rebounds.

The Bluejays have lost five in a row since beating Bethany 61-49 on January 5 and take on McPherson College on Thursday night.

Tabor is led in scoring by Katlyn Mary, who is averaging 10.5 points per game as the Bluejays average 50.5 per contest as a team, ranking them last in the KCAC. Tynan Honn leads Tabor in rebounding at 5.6 per game. Tabor shoots 35.3 percent from the field and 29.3 percent from three-point range.

THE LAST MEETING (KWU 59, Tabor 23 at Hillsboro)…
HILLSBORO – Kansas Wesleyan held Tabor to 18.6 percent shooting in the game and just 11 second half points as the No. 12 ranked Coyotes cruised to a 59-23 win over the Bluejays on Thursday night at the Tabor College Gym.

Senior guard Shelby Babcock reached 1000 points in her career with 15:38 to go in the second half on a driving layup down the right side of the lane under, and over, Tabor's 6-3 forward My-Chal Duncan that put the Coyotes ahead 31-14.

The second half was a stark contrast from the first for the Coyotes. Wesleyan hit 48 percent of its second half shots (12-of-25) while scoring 38 points, enough to win the game by 15 in that half alone.

Tabor scored the first points of the second half on Katlyn Mary's bucket, but the Coyotes followed with a 16-2 run that put Wesleyan up 37-16f with 13:28 to go on a bucket by Rebekah Bunde.

Wesleyan continued to pull away in the second half, going up by 31 on Vanessa Kresin's score and would hit a game high lead of 38 with 1:06 to go on a triple by Taylor Ebert, account for her first varsity points of her career.

The first half was less than stellar for either team. Wesleyan bolted out to a 12-0 lead with 15:33 left when the Coyotes scored five points without the clock moving. Cassity drove to the bucket and was fouled and scored to put Wesleyan up 9-0. Paust, who committed the foul, was also called for a technical and Babcock stepped to the line to nail two free throws and Cassity's charity capped off the play.

The Coyotes shot just 28.6 percent in the first half, but Tabor's even lower 19 percent (4-of-21) helped the cause for Wesleyan.

Tabor finally got its first points of the game at the 11:14 mark when Duncan hit a high arching shot from 18 feet at the top of the key. Wesleyan then struggled to score over the next ten minutes, allowing Tabor to go on a 10-4 run that was capped by a bucket by Tynan Honn with 7:43 to go in the half that made it 16-10.

Cassity broke Wesleyan's drought with a banked-in three on the left wing and the Coyotes would head to the break with a 21-12 lead.

Cassity led all scorers in the game with 14 points off the bench while Pihl had 11 and Bunde 10 as Wesleyan (7-4, 3-0 KCAC) shot 20-of-53 for 37.7 percent in the game. Bunde added eight rebounds, Kresin had seven and Frost six as the Coyotes enjoyed a 49-21 advantage on the glass. Montric had a season high eight steals.

Mary had seven points for Tabor (2-9, 0-3 KCAC) to lead the Bluejays who shot just 18.6 percent from the field (8-of-43). Tynan Honn had five points and a team high four rebounds for before fouling out midway through the second half.