Box Score For the second time this season against the Warriors, the Lady Bruins struggled in the 2nd quarter with single-digit points as Bob Jones University fell to Southern Wesleyan University 80-58 in Central, South Carolina on Thursday night.
"I have mixed emotions tonight," Coach Mike LeViere said. "We had a really good game in stretches, but every time we had a mental breakdown and made a mistake, they made us pay. This is a tough place to play and a tough opponent, but we competed."
The Bruins and Warriors met a few weeks ago in Greenville, with the Bruins leading for a good portion of the first half before allowing the Warriors to come back and steal a 67-49 victory. The Bruins entered the game at 6-6 after a convincing victory over Toccoa Falls College on Tuesday night. The Warriors sat at 2-3 but were ready to take the court in front of their hometown fans.
In the early stages, the Bruins were able to get good penetration and ball movement as the team knocked down shots to take the lead. The Bruins dominated on the glass as Kendra Jeffcott and Brianna Delaney provided the rebounding to give the Bruins second-chances on offense, and take away second-chance opportunities defensively. The team strung together a great quarter and led 19-14 at the end of one.
As the second quarter began, the Warriors were able to force the Bruins into several turnovers and Shelby Gilbert made the Bruins pay as she powered the Warriors with 9 first-half points. The Bruins managed just 6 points throughout the entire quarter as the team went into halftime trailing SWU 36-25.
"We ran some really good stuff but then didn't reward ourselves with getting the basket," Coach LeViere said. "We can't have an 8 minute stretch in the 2nd quarter like that where we seemed lost. We knew that would be hard to recover from."
In the third quarter, the Bruins looked to claw their way back into the game as Hannah Tompkins provided a spark from the outside to help the Bruins cut into the lead but the Warriors continued to have the upper hand. The Warriors double-teamed Brianna Delaney in the post, making it difficult for her to position herself to score. As the third quarter finished, the Warriors had increased their lead to 56-37.
The Bruins knew they would have to have a great finish to get back into the game and came out strong in the opening minutes of the quarter. Still, the team failed to capitalize on their opportunities to score which translated to buckets on the other end for the Warriors. As the final buzzer sounded, the Warriors had again overcome an early Bruins lead to gain the victory 80-58.
"We have to learn to be mentally tough in acknowledging mistakes and then forgetting them," Coach LeViere said. "We have to cut down the mistakes and simply convert a little better and we would have gotten the win. Now we have to be ready for the next game which doesn't get any easier this Saturday."
Hannah Tompkins led the Bruins with 12 points while Kendra Jeffcott had 10 with 9 rebounds. Brianna Delaney fought through an illness and battled for 7 points and 7 rebounds for the team as the Bruins shot just 31% from the field and 27% from three-point range in the game. With the loss, the team falls to 6-7 on the season and will play another road test on Saturday night against North Greenville University.
