MARION, Ind. -- No. 4 Indiana Wesleyan University and No. 18 Bethel (Ind.) came into Luckey Arena today ready to play in what ended up being a crazy back-and-forth effort in the Crossroad League Tournament Semifinal.

And 40 minutes was not enough to settle things as Bethel claimed the overtime victory 102-95. Bethel will now host Grace (Ind.) in the Crossroads League Tournament Championship on Tuesday night in Mishawaka, Indiana.

“It was a big game and we had an opportunity to move into the championship game,” said Indiana Wesleyan head coach Greg Tonagel. “I can’t fault our effort because I thought we played hard. I just didn’t think our execution was great.”

The Wildcats (26-6) struggled to contain a deep Pilot team that boasted three 20 point scorers today. Ryan Benner, Zach Miller, and Matt Schauss combined for 72 points on 26-of-47 (55.3-percent) shooting.

“We had several miscues,” continued Tonagel. “When you have a lot of young guys out there that can happen. A lot of that was on the defensive end as we didn’t switch when we needed to, we didn’t hedge when we should have, and we gave up layups.”

Bethel (25-7) stormed out of the gates to open the game on a 16-5 spurt. BC hit their first six field goals plus three free throws as they did not miss a shot until the game was four minutes old.

“We were too ready,” said Tonagel. “That was the problem. You can’t fault them for that because they were foaming at the mouth ready to play. But you need to be able to control that and manage that energy.”

Indiana Wesleyan would finish the half strongly. IWU outscored Bethel 17-4 in the last six minutes of the first half to turn an 11 point deficit into a 37-35 halftime lead.

Neither team led by more than six points the entire second half. Indiana Wesleyan held the lead most of the first 10 minutes of the period while Bethel led the majority of the final 10 minutes. Jordan Weidner scored on a layup with 20 seconds left to tie the game 89-89 and a defensive stop to end regulation sent the game into overtime.

Bethel quickly gained the lead on a 3-pointer by Benner on the first possession. BC did not surrender the lead. Weidner hit a 3-pointer with 58 seconds to go to cut the deficit in half to 97-94. Bethel answered with a huge basket by Schauss with 29 seconds left to go up five. The BC lead was at least two possessions the rest of the way.

Now Indiana Wesleyan sits back and awaits its draw for the NAIA Division II National Championship in Point Lookout, Missouri. The bracket will be released on Wednesday, March 5 and the First Round games will be played on the next Wednesday and Thursday (March 12-13).

“We’ve won 14 of 16 down the stretch,” added Tonagel. “So we are playing good basketball at the end of the season. We will have the guys ready for Branson.”