In the first half, Central College got the shots it wanted and made most of them.

In the second half, Andy Wills did the same.

“I could tell early (in the second half) that he got his feet set on a couple of (3-pointers), and he got some rhythm,” coach Rick Jeddeloh said. “The difference between the first half and the second half was that we took shots out of our offense instead of coming down a shooting after one pass. Those are the shots we practice, and we’re pretty good at those.”

Wills scored 23 points, including 16 in the second half, as Bethany Lutheran rallied for a 76-70 nonconference men’s basketball victory Wednesday at the Bethany Sports & Fitness Center.

Bethany overcame an early seven-point deficit with a 6-0 run, highlighted by Kaleb Saindon’s 3-pointer, that made it 12-11 after five minutes. Central (3-1) put together a 10-1 run to pull ahead 25-15 at the 11-minute mark.

Justin Madsen’s fifth 3-pointer made it 45-27 before Bethany scored the last points of the half, including Jeff Zimmerman’s elbow jumper.

Central shot 56.1 percent in the first half and made six 3-pointers.

“We communicated better (in the second half), we trusted each other more, we had pride,” Jeddeloh said. “That’s the things you need to play good defense.”

Stephone Frederick had a couple of post baskets to start the second half as Bethany cut the deficit to 10 points, then Andy Wills made consecutive shots as the margin shrank to 52-46 with 13:21 to play. The 17-point run continued until Wills hit a fadeaway in the lane for a 54-52 lead just four minutes later.

The lead changed seven times before Wills’ second 3-pointer put Bethany up 66-62 with four minutes remaining. After Central got back within two points, Frederick hit a tough shot from underneath to make it 70-66 with 1:15 to go. After Wills missed a 3-pointer, Saindon grabbed the rebound and put it back in for a 72-68 lead with 23 seconds remaining. Tommy Saffert hit four clinching free throws in the final seconds.

Saffert finished with 18 points, while Frederick scored 12 points. Wills finished with nine rebounds.

Bethany shot 56.3 percent in the second half and Central shot 32.3 percent.

Bethany (3-2) plays at Minnesota State at 3 p.m. Saturday