ST. PETER, Minn. – The Bethel University men's basketball team trailed by as many as 11 points before earning a come from behind 84-81 road win at Gustavus Adolphus Wednesday evening.

The Royals overcame their largest deficit of the year to extend their winning streak to nine games while improving to 17-7 overall and 14-6 in the MIAC. Bethel will close out the regular season on Saturday at Hamline. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m.

Junior guard Granger Kingland once again led the way for Bethel with 21 points. Senior center Derek Magnuson added 19 points and a team-high eight rebounds while Jack Jenson rounded out the starters with 14 points. Off the bench, junior guard Hudson Urbanus scored 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting. Tyler Barker continues to be the best distributor in the MIAC picking up 10 assists.

Bethel faced its largest deficit of the game at 33-22 with 7:57 left in the first half. After the timeout by head coach Doug Novak, the Royals began the process of inching closer to taking a lead. Over the next two and a half minutes the Royals rattled off seven straight to pull within four. Matt Ambriz scored five of his nine points to pull Bethel within 35-34 at the 3:41 mark. A layup by Jake Van Wyk tied things up at 40-40 before the host Gusties connected on a layup in the final minute to take a two point lead into the break.

The Royals grabbed their first lead since the opening minute with 16:48 left in regulation as Kingland knocked down a 3-pointer from Barker in transition. The teams traded baskets over the next few minutes before Gustavus held on to a lead that didn't expand over five points for the next eight minutes until Kingland hit a pair of free throws to put Bethel back on top for good with 2:32 left.

Strong defensive forced the Gusties to draw an offensive foul which led Ambriz to expand the lead to 82-77 with just over a minute remaining. Back-to-back layups by Gustavus pulled the Gusties within one with nine seconds left. The Royals, out of the timeout, broke the press as Magnuson was fouled with two seconds remaining. Magnuson knocked down both ends of the free throw before the Gusties were denied one last look at the other end before the horn.