Box Score
The Lady Bruins picked up an important conference win as the team powered past the Columbia International University Rams 55-47 on Tuesday night. "Our success has been the ability of our team to adjust with whatever our opponent throws at us," Coach Mike LeViere said. "Ultimately it is on the team to go out and perform on the floor but our team has been playing great defense. Our rebounding was huge for us tonight which helped us get the victory."

The Bruins came into the game on Tuesday night with a 13-11 record having won their last three games. The Rams were riding similar momentum as they entered with an 11-10 record having won 4 of their last 5 games. The Bruins and Rams met earlier this season with the Bruins capturing a 37-34 win in Columbia. The Lady Bruins were hoping history would repeat itself as they took their home floor.

In the opening minutes, both teams struggled to score as the shots rimmed out on both ends. The Rams jumped out to an early 6-0 lead as the Bruins went 0-6 in their shooting to start the game. Maggi Ford eventually got the Bruins into the scoring column after being held scoreless for the first five minutes of the game. The two teams knew they would be in for another defensive struggle as each team stood strong on defense. The Bruins were struggling from the perimeter, so the team began to work the ball more inside and drove the lane for points.

Cierra Boggs banked home a post shot to put the Rams up 23-18 with just minutes to play in the half. The Bruins would respond as Kourtney Hoefler helped to spark a rally to allow the Bruins to end the half down 26-25.

"We needed to slow down and get the better shot," Bruins' guard Sha'Ron Brunson said. "We always want to push the ball but sometimes we need to slow our game down which helped us in this game."

In the second half, the Bruins used an 11-2 run to open the half as the team continued to work the ball inside for points and get to the free throw line. Kendra Jeffcott and Hannah Tompkins combined to shoot a combined 24 free throws to help the Bruins keep the advantage. Each time the Rams would try to make a run, the Bruins would respond with clutch shooting and key free throw conversions. As the final buzzer sounded, the Bruins fought hard for their 5th straight win in the 55-47 victory over Columbia International University.

"We knew we needed to attack more off the dribble since they had scouted us well and knew our shooters and tried to limit us from the outside," Coach LeViere said. "We knew going into the half that we needed to make better decisions with the ball and knew that if a defender was going to come out and pressure us that we needed to be more assertive and drive to the basket and we did that well to close the game."

Kendra Jeffcott had a double-double for the Bruins with 14 points and 15 rebounds. Hannah Tompkins didn't record a field goal in the game but shot 13-14 from the free throw line to finish with 13 points on the night. The Bruins shot 80% from the free throw line in the game including shooting 20-22 in the second half. The team also dominated the rebounding stat line 46-23 over CIU. With the win, the Bruins improve to 14-11 on the season. The Bruins have finished up their home stand and now have four straight road games coming up over the next few weeks. First up, the Bruins will travel to Florida for a matchup with Pensacola Christian College.