Men’s Bas­ket­ball Says Good­bye to Se­niors

MISHAWAKA—The men’s bas­ket­ball team hosted its se­nior-night fes­tiv­i­ties on Feb. 17 dur­ing its game ver­sus the Saint Fran­cis Cougars. The team ended up los­ing that game, 87-82, but its se­nior class has left its foot­print on the Bethel Uni­ver­sity men’s bas­ket­ball pro­gram. The three se­niors this year are Tre­Vion Crews, Nick Pluta and Ni­coloy Bai­ley. 

Nick Pluta, a busi­ness man­age­ment ma­jor from Spring­boro, Ohio, leaves Bethel av­er­ag­ing 3.9 points per game on his ca­reer. Pluta was a key role player for the Pi­lots in three of the four years he was on cam­pus. Al­though his stats never were eye-catch­ing, he was a leader for the Pi­lots in his last two sea­sons. He plans to get mar­ried in the fall to cur­rent se­nior leader for the Pi­lots’ vol­ley­ball team, Abby Ar­mold. On his se­nior night, Nick posted a stat line of four points, two re­bounds, an as­sist and a block.  

“Nick has been a solid con­trib­u­tor in my two years here,” Head Coach Steve Drabyn said. “He brings ef­fort and en­thu­si­asm to the game and is a great team­mate. I am proud of the player and per­son he has be­come and wish him noth­ing but the best in what­ever he chooses to do af­ter Bethel.” 

The sec­ond se­nior for the Bethel Pi­lots is Ni­coloy Bai­ley. Bai­ley, an­other busi­ness man­age­ment ma­jor, trans­ferred to Bethel be­fore the start of last sea­son from Sin­clair Com­mu­nity Col­lege. He is orig­i­nally from Old Har­bour, Ja­maica. Bai­ley has been a mi­nor role player for the Pi­lots in his two sea­sons. Dur­ing this sea­son, Bai­ley saw his play­time in­crease due to in­juries to other play­ers on the ros­ter. He has been able to post ca­reer highs in points, re­bounds and as­sists over the course of the sea­son. Bai­ley did not check into the game on his se­nior night, but against Goshen he saw some play­ing time, in which he se­cured two re­bounds. 

“Ni­coloy has been a joy to coach,” Drabyn said. “He has an in­fec­tious per­son­al­ity that rubs off well on his team­mates. I am proud of the ef­fort he has given our pro­gram and his growth as a player and per­son.” 

Last, but not least, is Tre­Vion Crews. His ré­sumé speaks for it­self, whether you start with pro­gram records or na­tional awards. Crews will fin­ish his Bethel ca­reer in the top ten in to­tal points scored; at the end of the reg­u­lar sea­son, he had 2,083 points. He has also col­lected over 500 ca­reer re­bounds and dished out over 500 as­sists. The list of ac­co­lades on Tre­Vion’s ré­sumé go on and on, but one of his biggest ac­com­plish­ments is be­ing the fourth player in the Pi­lots' men’s bas­ket­ball his­tory to reach 2,000 points and 500 as­sists. He is also the sec­ond player to do it in three years. In ad­di­tion to the sta­tis­ti­cal records that Crews holds, he has also been rec­og­nized at the high­est stage of NAIA bas­ket­ball. He is a two-time NAIA All-Amer­i­can and was named to the Small Col­lege Bas­ket­ball Bevo Fran­cis Award Top 50 watch­list two times, first in 2019, and then again in 2020. 

“Tre­Vion Crews is an out­stand­ing player that brings a lot of value to the game,” Drabyn said. “His num­bers in three years have been off-the-charts good. He is al­ways un­der con­trol and makes his team­mates around him bet­ter. I am proud of his growth as a team­mate and grow­ing in lead­er­ship.” 

As for the men’s bas­ket­ball team, it ended the reg­u­lar sea­son on Feb. 20 against Goshen Col­lege with a 96-84 vic­tory to fin­ish the reg­u­lar sea­son with a 20-9 over­all record and a 9-7 record in the Cross­roads League. The team started its Cross­roads League Tour­na­ment jour­ney as the No. 3 seed against Mount Ver­non Nazarene on Feb. 24. They lost in a thriller 117-104 at the Weikamp Ath­letic Cen­ter. Crews scored 44 points, which puts him at 2,127 points for his ca­reer. His 2,127 points put him at sev­enth in the all-time scor­ing leader­board.  

For more in­for­ma­tion on the men’s bas­ket­ball team, visit www.bupi­lots.com.