The Bethel boys basketball team saw their season come to an end to long-time rival Miami East by the score of 61-42 in the second round of the sectional tournament on Wednesday. The Bees had advanced with a 47-42 win over Dixie last Tuesday.
In the loss to the Vikings, Bethel was led in scoring by Casey Keesee, who scored 14 points to cap his outstanding senior campaign with 470 points for an average of 19.6 points-per-game. Fittingly, Keesee was a first-team selection in the Three Rivers Conference post-season awards.
The sectional loss didn’t deter from a season the Bees compiled – a season Bethel can build on for the future as there were many highlights in 2021-22. Bethel swept TRC foes Riverside, Covington and Lehman Catholic and split regular season contests with Miami East, who shared the league title with Milton-Union and Troy Christian.
In non-conference action, the Bees defeated Northeastern and Triad during the regular season and followed with a win over Dixie in the tournament.
In all, Bethel finished 7-7 in the TRC and 10-14 overall. The Bees lose four seniors from this year’s team to graduation; Will Reittenger (6-1), Nico Golden (6-2), Casey Keesee (5-6), and Nolan Flomerfelt (5-11).
Fortunately, Bethel returns plenty of talent next year in juniors Julian Peasant, Karson Holden, Jace Houck and Jason Bowen, along with sophomores Elijah Alberti and Braylon Schroeder and freshmen Mike Halleg and Remi Brannan.
Of the players who will return next year, freshmen Mike Halleg accounted for 10 points-per-game and Remi Brannan averaged just under 5 points-per-game and led the Bees with nearly six rebounds a game.
