The Bethel women's basketball team had a strong showing against some of the nation's best teams in late December at the D3hoops.com Classic in Las Vegas. The Royals beat Millsaps, 69-52, and lost to third-ranked George Fox, 84-71. Leading the way was sophomore forward Molly O'Toole, who averaged 19.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game while shooting 58.6 percent from the floor and 80 percent from the free throw line to earn All-Tournament Team honors. For her performance, the MIAC sports information directors further honored O'Toole Monday with the MIAC Women's Basketball Athlete-of-the-Week award.

O'Toole started the classic with a dominant 23-point, eight-rebound, two-steal showing in the 69-52 win over Millsaps, which won 20 games and was an NCAA tournament team a year ago. O'Toole shot 10-for-13 from the floor and 2-for-3 from the line in the win. She followed that up with 16 points, nine boards and two steals in the loss to third-ranked George Fox to cement her spot on the All-Tournament Team. This season, O'Toole is averaging 13.9 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, and she ranks ninth in the MIAC in scoring, eighth in rebounding, fourth in field-goal percentage (54.4) and ninth in free-throw percentage (77.4). 

Thanks to the split at the prestigious invitational, the Royals remained at .500 with a 5-5 overall record, and the team is also 2-2 in conference play. Bethel hosts Northwestern Monday at 7 p.m. in one more nonconference game before returning to MIAC action by hosting St. Olaf Wednesday at 7 p.m. and traveling to St. Thomas Saturday for a 3 p.m. tip off in a rematch of last season's MIAC Playoff title game.