Box Score
The Bruins women traveled to Cleveland, Georgia on Saturday afternoon to face the Truett-McConnell Bears. The Bruins were coming off a lopsided 76-47 victory over Toccoa Falls on Tuesday. The team has played well to start the 2013-14 season. The Bears of Truett-McConnell were playing their first game of the season as the "battle of the Bears" was about to begin.  

From the opening tip, the Bears came out strong and quickly jumped out to a 10-2 lead. The Bruins struggled with getting off clean shots and turned the ball over a few times in the opening minutes. Eventually the team would settle into their usual rhythm and begin to chip away at the lead. The Bruins worked through their offensive progressions and opened up the floor for the wings to get some open looks. Hannah Tompkins and Trisha Irving hit several key shots as Kourtney Hoefler owned the glass for the Bruins. The team closed out the remainder of the half by going on a 28-12 run to give the Bruins a 30-22 lead at the half. 

"We knew this was going to be a tough battle," Coach LeViere said. "We have been working on our defense which I thought played well. We had to fight for rebounds as they controlled the rebounding margin in the first half." 

In the second half, the Bruins came out strong and quickly jumped out to a bigger lead by getting their offense in full swing. The defense stood strong and forced tough shots while capitalizing on turnovers. With 7 minutes remaining, the Bruins had worked their way to a double digit lead and were looking unstoppable. The Bears then kicked it into high gear and began to knock down shots to chip away at the Bruins lead. The Bruins looked as if a lid were on the basket as the team couldn't buy a point for several of the remaining minutes of the half. The teams went back and forth looking for the upper hand. 

With less than 10 seconds to go, Trisha Irving hit a clutch free throw to give the Bruins a slim 3-point lead. From there, the Bears finally opportunity to draw even didn't fall as the Bruins held on for a 52-49 win. 

"We did what we had to in this game to get the win," Coach LeViere said. "We hit some big shots down the stretch and played great defense tonight." 

With the win, the Bruins improve to 3-1 and have won their second straight game. The Bruins shot 9-29 from behind the arc today, but the team also got 12 rebounds from Kourtney Hoefler who continues to dominate the glass for the team. Hannah Tompkins was 4-6 while scoring 10 points for the Bruins. Maggie Ford came back from missing the previous game by hitting 3 three-pointers to help the Bruins offense. The Bruins will relish in this win, and will look to keep their winning streak alive as they welcome Barber Scotia College on Tuesday night.