MINNEAPOLIS – The No. 3 seeded Bethel University women's basketball team second half rally came up on the short end against the No. 2 seed Augsburg Thursday evening inside Si Melby Hall. The Royals erased an 11-point third quarter deficit before falling 79-70 in the MIAC Playoff semifinals.

For the fourth time in six seasons the Royals end the year with at least 20 wins going 20-7 during the 2018-19 campaign. The Royals closed out a fantastic second half of the season winning eight of their last 10 games.

Senior Hannah Johnson closed out her Bethel career in the most fitting way with a 24-point, 12-rebound double-double. With 1,305 career points Johnson sits eighth on the Royals all-time scoring list and second all-time in rebounds with 922. She also joins Bethel greats Rachel Parupsky and Annegret Nautsch with the third-most career blocks at 265.

Junior Taite Anderson poured in a 20 point effort with Makenna Pearson right behind her at 12 points and four assists. Off the bench, Elizabeth Schwarz added eight points and four rebounds. The MIAC's leading assister, Haylee Barker tallied seven assists.

The Royals trailed by five just inside the final minute of the game. After a timeout with 47.2 remaining Bethel worked it inside to Johnson who laid it off the glass to pull the Royals with in three, but the margin never got closer than that the rest of the way. The Royals were on the wrong end of a pair of open 3-point looks in its final possession as the Auggies did the rest of their work at the charity stripe.

Things looked upward for BU as they hit the bonus with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. Bethel hit eight of its last ten at the free throw line holding a lead up to the 4:07 mark until the Auggies tied it at 64. Johnson and Pearson both came up empty on good looks before Arianna Jones knocked down a long trey to give the Auggies the lead it needed to hang on the rest of the way.

Bethel came out firing scoring the game's first nine points. Taite Anderson started the run from long distance before Johnson connected on back-to-back layups. The full court pressure by Bethel sped up Augsburg early forcing the Auggies to miss their first five attempts from the field. Augsburg erased the Royals early nine point lead with 2:56 to go in the first as Aiza Wilson knocked down the Auggies fifth straight 3-pointer to take a 15-13 advantage. The Royals weathered the storm and took advantage of the inside game to lead 20-15 after the first 10 minutes.

A steal by Bella Williams and a layup on the other end pushed the Royals lead back to eight in the opening two minutes of the second period. Augsburg again showed its resilience on the offensive end. As things quieted for BU, it picked up on the other end with a 15-2 run by the Auggies to take a 34-29 lead. Johnson inside once again laid one off the glass to end a near four minute scoring drought with 2:38 remaining in the half. Both teams finished out the quarter at the free throw line where Augsburg grew a 39-32 lead to take into the locker room.

Augsburg pushed its lead to double digits in the early parts of the third quarter. A layup and a pair of free throws helped the Auggies lead by 11 points on two separate occasions before the Royals chipped away. A 10-0 run by Bethel began with back-to-back treys by Pearson and Johnson. Taite Anderson, playing a majority of the second half with four fouls, laid it off the glass with 4:38 left to pull the Royals within a possession. BU broke through its offensive struggles with a layup from Schwarz to tie things up at 55-55 to erase an 11-point deficit. But a layup on the next trip down the floor gave Augsburg a two point lead heading into the final frame.