12/08/00 12/09/00 12/15/00 12/16/00 12/19/00 12/22/00 12/23/00 12/29/00 12/30/00 01/05/01 01/06/01 01/12/01 01/20/01 01/26/01 01/27/01 02/02/01 02/03/01 02/09/01 02/10/01 02/17/01 02/27/01 03/02/01 03/09/01 03/13/01 at Miss. Valley at Miami East Franklin Monroe Anna Arcanum at Newton Bradford at Russia Fairlawn National Trail Milton Union at Tri-Village at Bethel at Twin Valley South Tipp City at T.C. North Newton Ansonia at Versailles at Dayton Christian Houston Russia Cedarville Bethel 70-54 49-64 73-63 59-64 72-36 50-41 62-47 67-79 65-56 71-47 60-47 65-47 46-70 63-55 82-64 80-46 61-45 64-55 59-51 63-59 60-54 51-48 47-45 57-67

January 20, 2001 – BETHEL
Steve Fisher was once on the Covington bench running the show with Roger Craft as an assistant. Now, Fisher is the coach of the Bethel Bees and Roger Craft is behind the wheel in Covington. These two coaches (and friends) know each other very well and the respect between the two is apparant.

The coaches can coach the players until their blue in the face but the bottom line is, the players decide the outcome. Bethel and Covington has become a bitter rivalry that crosses the lines to all sports. The football teams battled each other twice in the regular season with the Buccs winning both games and knocking the Bees out of the playoffs. Some of the players that were on the football teams also participate on the basketball teams so the rivalry is fresh in their minds. No matter how much coaching a coach does, once the players are on the floor, its' their show. Roger Craft and Steve Fisher can't shoot the ball.

In a game with high anticipation, the Buccs were beaten by a better team on this night. Bethel totally dominated the game from the opening tip. Bethel had a 19-point lead at the end of the first period which forced the Buccs to try and play catch-up. The 24-5 lead after the first was the Buccs' largest deficit of the season and against a talented team like Bethel, it's a huge task to overcome.

Both teams played pretty even basketball the rest of the way. Covington hung with Bethel in the second by matching them point-for-point, 15-15, but the 19-point lead remained at the half.

The Buccs again hung in there in the third and fourth but was unable to cut into the Bethel's lead. Bethel increased their lead to 21 points after three periods and by the end of the game they had a 24-point win, 70-46.

The first quarter was no indication on the quality of the Buccs' team. The second throw fourth quarters was more of what fans expected when these two teams met. In those three quarters, the Bees held a 5-point edge.

Bethel walked off of the court with a sense of revenge from the football season and the Buccs walked off hoping they get another crack at the Bees. All in all, two great programs battling it out on the floor is something that gets the fans interested in small school basketball. These two programs and coaches are a credit to high school basketball.

Bethel shot and amazing 60 percent from the field while the Buccs struggled with 32 percent from two-point range and 17 percent from three-point land. The Buccs shot 23 times from outside the arch and was outrebounded 32-22.

The Buccs try to regroup as they make their third straight road trip to Twin Valley South on January 26.