Box Score
The Bruins basketball team started their second half of the season as they welcomed the Tennessee Temple Crusaders on Friday night. The players have been on Christmas break over the past few weeks and were looking to start back up strong against TTU. The Bruins had dropped two straight games with difficult losses to Newberry College and Emmanuel College. Tennessee Temple University came into Friday night's game on a three game losing streak, and sit 7-6 during the 2013-14 season. Despite the cold weather outside, the Bruin faithful were hoping their team would catch fire to snap their losing streak. 

From the opening tip, the Bruins looked like they had been on a two week break from basketball as the Crusaders jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead. Larry Taylor responded with a bucket and then stole the ball and passed to Kyle Turner who finished the play to get the Bruins back into the game. The Crusaders began to work through their offensive sets and took advantage of some mismatches on defense to drive through the lane and get points. The Bruins struggled to find an answer on the offensive end as the team's shots wouldn't fall. Tennessee Temple worked their lead up to 13 points, but Larry Taylor hit a three point shot with seconds remaining to cut the lead to 39-29 at the break. 

"Our first four possessions we missed four layups," Coach Ring said. "It was just one of those nights where we were not able to convert on our opportunities." 

In the second half, the Bruins came out with a three from Zach Mercado and looked to get back into the game. The Crusaders then went on a 20-4 run as they took advantage of several Bruin turnovers to extend their lead. The Bruins tried to claw their way back into the game with several short runs, but the deficit was too large to overcome as the Crusaders continued to control the game. As the final buzzer sounded, the Bruins suffered a difficult 86-75 loss at home. 

"We were uncharacteristically unfocused tonight," Coach Ring said. We continued to get stops and miss layups and miss open shots and that takes the energy right out of us. Ultimately this was a tough loss at home but hopefully we knocked the rust off to be ready to go for the next game." 

Larry Taylor led the Bruins with 22 points and 5 assists on the night. Evan Brondyke scored 12 off the bench and Zach Mercado and Kyle Turner each chipped in 10 for the Bruins. With the loss, the team is now riding a three-game losing streak pushing their record to 6-9 on the season. The team will have a Florida road-trip next week as they play three games before the start of classes next semester. The first game will be on January 21st as the Bruins will play Johnson University of Florida on Tuesday night.